Purge
by Leapingspirit
Summary: I'll add a summary later. But this is the sequel to 'Separated' and if you haven't read it yet go read it now. Its in your best interst trust me. EllisxHunter and other pairings. I.E. slash pairings and the like.
1. Ordinary World

Purge

_**Ah and so starts the sequel to 'Separated.' If any of y'all haven't read that one, go read it so you're not too too confused on what's goin on here. If you have, then enjoy the second installment to the series. The Histories will be uploaded within the next couple weeks I hope starting with Alec's and working my way through the rest of the major characters. Hope y'all enjoy!**_

Chapter 1- Ordinary World; _RED_

_'And I don't cry for yesterday, there's an ordinary world somewhere I have to find. And as I try to make my way to the ordinary world I will learn to survive.'_

"_Time turns the old days into derision, Our loves into corpses or wives; And marriage into death and division Make our barren lives."- Algernon Swineburne_

"Get down!" a blonde haired Smoker hissed, ducking behind a scrubby bit of bush. He was tall and lanky, gangly legs and a single bony arm ending with long thin fingers. His hair fell to his shoulders and covered a scarred over eye partially while the other was a milky yellow color. His five other companions crouched behind him, one crawling on all fours up to his side, red eyes blazing in the coming darkness showing him as a Hunter. He had a muscular form, tall and well proportioned with long claws on his hands and thick calve muscles made for running and leaping great distances. His dark chocolate colored hair shone slightly in the disappearing sunlight and his angular face was curious as to what the Smoker had seen.

"What's wrong Philo?" he growled in a voice kept low in his throat.

"Military convoy going down the highway." Philo nodded down the scrubby dune they were situated on. He sniffed lightly in slight disgust, scowling as the Hunter beside him growled, baring long sharp fangs. "They're going toward Vegas. Looks like that plan was all for nothing there Spirit." he turned around and stared at the single female among their group who scowled back at him. She was of average height with a stocky frame, broad shoulders and long legs. Her silver-brown hair was cut raggedly above her shoulders and her gray-blue eyes were cold with weariness and anticipation of the possible showdown between their group and the military convoy if they were spotted. She looked young, maybe about sixteen or seventeen and stood unevenly from a recent leg injury she had just recovered from.

"And who says they took over the entire town?" she demanded in a low voice. "They're probably spread between the dam, the city and the air force base north of the city." she moved forward and squinted down at the line of flashlights down the hill, her poor eyesight hindering her in the dark more than it normally did. "We could probably get past them."

"And we could also probably get shot up." muttered a taller male behind her, rubbing the pad of his thumb over his shotgun absently. He was long bodied and had brown hair with scruffy reddish-blonde facial hair accompanied with blue eyes like a sky before a thunderstorm. "I say avoid Vegas and get to LA." He also appeared young, possibly about eighteen or nineteen years of age and had a hidden hardness to his stare from several past run-ins with untrustworthy people.

"Let's try and be optimistic here shall we?" Spirit murmured over her shoulder, raising an eyebrow.

"Well its about time we stopped for the night anyway." a man with curly brown hair and bright blue eyes piped up. He sat down on the sandy desert floor and sighed, taking one shoe off and shaking some sand and twigs from it. "I've got blisters on my blisters and we've been travelin' all day. I think Josh's just about ready to pass out." he jabbed a thumb at a black haired and blue eyed man who scowled at him.

"Speak for yourself Ellis. If you didn't have Alec to cling to you'd have bit the dust a long time ago." he spoke irritably but quietly, impatient from the long day. "We've been traveling for almost two months now. I think its safe to say we've left Gregory and his army in our dust. For all we know they're still stuck in the frozen wasteland that is Colorado." he sat down across from Ellis and sighed, thinking back. Gregory was a Smoker, an insane one at that, who was a former scientist in the labs that had developed the Infection. He had declared war on all humans and decreed that any humans found by any Infected were to be killed on sight, no questions asked.

Ellis frowned at the shorter man but shook his head, understanding the normally timid person's short temper. The Hunter, Alec crouched beside him, staring at him with analytical red eyes before turning on his heel and bounding down the dune opposite the military convoy. He shifted his blue eyes to the brown haired male who had sat down near Spirit. "Don't worry Wolfen. They'll have passed by morning. Until then I think we just need to relax a little and get some rest."

"Well one of us should remain on watch." Philo grunted, still crouched on the crest of the hill. "I'll take first watch and at midnight I'll wake Alec up." he ran his single hand through his shock of dark blonde hair and sighed. "I guess the good thing about traveling like this is we haven't really had time to run into any real trouble."

"Hey, don't jinx it now." Spirit snapped, over-exaggerating her horrified expression for effect before grinning. "And don't worry, once we get through Vegas and across the Sierra Nevada's its a straight shot from there. Smooth sailin' and all that." she yawned widely and stretched her arms above her head, puffing out a sigh and sweeping her eyes over her companions.

"You said the exact same thing when we left Denver and how did that turn out?" Wolfen accused, frowning lightly at her. "We get chased by a Tank, run into a military group and get caught between the two. I'm amazed neither of us wound up getting shot to pieces with all the chaos that went on."

Spirit stared almost blankly at him before replying airily, "Oh yeah, that's when you crushed my glasses and almost shot me when I was jumped on by a Hunter." her tone got more and more threatening as she talked. She stared at him a second more before snapping her head back the direction Alec had crawled off as the Hunter came back with an armful of scrubby firewood.

"Behave now you two." the Hunter sighed, setting down the wood in the center of the group. Philo tossed him his old cigarette lighter as Alec got it situated into a semblance of a tee-pee set up. Alec lit one scrubby branch and tossed it into the pile, allowing a small blaze to light up the faces around him. "You can bicker and squabble all you want when we find an actually safe place to stay for a couple days but for now at least pretend to get along." he smirked lightly as they glanced at each other and snorted at the same time. He had watched the two of them since they had joined up with their motley crew a couple months ago. They bickered constantly but had a close bond that came from months and months, nearly a year, of traveling and surviving together. It also appeared that they both watched the Infected closely because sometimes, in order to get out of a pinch, they'd fall back on whatever knowledge they possessed of the Infected and the way they behaved to scrabble their way through a tough area that a Hunter or Jockey would have a slightly hard time getting through. They moved as a team, moving with surprising nimbleness for a couple humans but that could also be contributed to almost a year of constant movement. Now that Spirit had been able to remove the splint that she had had on her leg when it had been broken they moved especially well, like a well oiled machine.

It was much like how Alec and Philo worked together when they got into a tight situation. It was almost like a mental link was developed and they moved on their own yet in sync with each other. Attacking and defending each other without a word uttered. Moving together to a better vantage point or a strategically better location. All of it was learned behavior and absolutely vital during the Infection. The more you worked as a team, the better a chance you had of surviving. Alec had also witnessed that sort of fluidity between Ellis and Joshua whenever the two humans had to move without the two Infected. They would time their reloads on their weapons almost perfectly to where one always had his fingers on the trigger while the other reloaded. Those times were rare considering Alec stuck to Ellis like they were attached at the hip and only left his side when he absolutely had to. They had been pushed apart too many times in the past and the Hunter was determined to make up for it now.

Their current goal was to first get through Las Vegas to see what had been done to it and possibly stock up on supplies and then cross the Sierra Nevada's and find the house of Spirit's aunt in Los Angeles. They should be safe there for at least a month if not more if they got really lucky. None of them were sure how fast Gregory's army was advancing which also made them unsure if they could even linger for a single night without the risk of being overtaken. Gregory had made it clear he wanted Alec in his army because of his greater speed, strength, agility, and intelligence and was also determined to get rid of the humans he was traveling with. Philo's fate was undetermined if they got caught but he would probably be welcomed into the ranks as well thanks to the intelligence and insight he could possibly offer. The Smoker may act like a dunce at times but he had all sorts of knowledge stored away in his mind that could be put to good or bad use. He and Alec both learned fast, were able to figure out puzzle-like situations quickly, and could infer and make and opinion on something quickly and accurately about a wide variety of things that could be extremely valuable to Gregory if he managed to get his hands on the two of them. Ellis, Joshua, Wolfen, and Spirit would all be killed because of Gregory's insane hatred for humans and because of the damage they had already done to his ranks just in taking out small regiments they had run into periodically.

Alec flicked his blazing red eyes over to Philo's back as the Smoker stared down the hill at the vanishing convoy and the dark city in the distance. He could already feel the temperature dropping around them as the sun disappeared completely and the moon began to rise, just a thin almost claw-like shape in the sky. The air around them was silent aside from the slight whistle of the wind and the crackling of the low fire. Joshua and Spirit had both already collapsed onto their backs and were asleep, Joshua's mouth open in a silent snore and Spirit's clenched shut tightly. Wolfen sat near her left side, watching the moon as Alec was and Ellis was watching the fire at Alec's side. Without a word, Ellis wrapped one arm under Alec's and leaned against his shoulder with a quiet sigh. "Something wrong?" the Hunter asked in a whisper, pressing his chin to the top of the other's.

"Not really. Just thinkin." Ellis murmured back, tightening his grip for a brief moment. "Hopefully when we reach LA, hell even when we get into Vegas, we'll be able to relax a little." Alec glanced down at him, sensing that there was something else that Ellis wasn't telling him. He could always tell when something was on Ellis's mind but normally didn't press him on it but this time he went a little further.

"There's something else isn't there?" he asked quietly, pressing his cheek to the side of Ellis's temple and breathing in his scent. Ellis was quiet for a long time, playing with the fabric of his shirt lightly before sighing and pulling away from Alec to look him in the eye.

"I'm kinda worried about Philo. Ever since we left the mountains he's been acting differently. He's been real quiet and serious and its a bit concerning." he glanced at Philo's turned back and back to Alec. "I can't even begin to imagine what he thinks about but whatever it is is changing him."

Alec let out a low breath through his nose and forced a soft smile. "I think he's just stressed out. We all are. There's an honest to God war hanging over our heads and four out of the six of us are human. Well," he glanced at Wolfen and Spirit a bit warily, still not sure if they were immune or extremely lightly Infected. "I'm not sure about those two but they don't seem Infected. Then again they don't seem one hundred percent human either."

"Oh?"

"I can't tell if they're immune, carriers, Infected or just odd smelling humans. Their scents are really muddled together, I think from spending so much time in the Infected world. The change in scent might be a defense mechanism that their bodies have learned to produce to make a slight cloak over their true smell."

"That's an interesting theory but wouldn't that have happened to me'n Josh too?" Ellis asked, his blue eyes shining with interest. "Or do you think its selective?" Alec blinked, slightly thrown off. Sometimes he forgot just how intelligent Ellis was when he normally either trying to cheer everyone up with hillbilly humor or making stupid jokes.

"I'm not sure. I kinda just came up with this." Alec grinned sheepishly, his jaws splitting into a huge yawn a heartbeat later. "Well, if I'm going to take second watch, I may as well sleep now." he chuckled, stretching out on his back. Ellis laid down beside him resting his head on Alec's shoulder and wrapping one arm around the Hunter's abdomen in a tight grip. Alec's eyes slowly slipped shut and it seemed like it had only been a minute when he felt Philo kick him in the ribs to wake him up. He swiped absently at the Smoker's leg, grumbling unintelligibly and squeezing his eyes shut.

"Get up frog-legs before I make you." Philo grumbled, exhaustion lacing his tone. Alec cracked open his eyes, growling deep in his chest up at the Smoker who just stared evenly back down, in no mood to put up with the Hunter's grouchiness. "Unless you want me to call in that debt that you still owe me." he sighed airily.

"What debt?-" Alec snapped his jaws shut, peeling himself away from Ellis and standing up. "I can't fucking believe you still remember that." he snarled, flashing back to when they had just entered Colorado before Alec had not only relearned how to speak in the human tongue but also before he had finally admitted his love for Ellis.

"I remember a lot of things." Philo simply replied, waving him off and sitting heavily down on the ground. "It seems like I'm the only one who doesn't have someone. Joshua's started padding after those two," he jabbed his thumb at Spirit and Wolfen. "I just can't tell which one he has more of an interest in or if its puppy love like what he had with me." he sighed and ran his hand through his dark blonde hair. Alec crouched beside him, patting him on the shoulder lightly. "and obviously you have Ellis and he has you."

Alec stared at the ground absently before shaking his head. "Well they do say bad things happen to good people don't they? Don't worry Philo, you're a good guy. You've got a lot going for you and I can't point out one person I've ever known that's been alone forever. Hell even my bastard of a father found someone to put up with him." he snickered some outwardly but on the inside his stomach was churning with resentment. Philo said nothing for a long time, drawing small circles in the dust below him quietly, lost deep in his thoughts.

"Well if you say so." he finally sighed, stifling a yawn. "Go take your watch. Kick one of those two open about an hour or two before dawn." he pointed over at the two humans across the fire from him before glancing at Joshua as he snored lightly. Alec noticed that Philo had somehow established himself as the leader of their group in a light sense. He didn't really mind but didn't much care for being told what to do when he was so used to being the one to be giving out instructions. But Philo was the oldest of their group, twenty-six as of two weeks ago if his estimate on the months had been accurate. Ellis would be turning twenty-four in about four weeks and Joshua twenty-three the week after that supposedly. Alec still had to wait until whenever March was to turn twenty-two and he wasn't sure about Wolfen or Spirit. He didn't even know how old they actually were. He never found the time or place to ask and really didn't care much. Both of them looked younger than Alec by a couple years though so he assumed they were both in their late teens.

Shaking himself out of those thoughts, he crawled over to the crest of the hill, peering down at the highway through the darkness. He couldn't see any movement aside from the shrubbery moving in the stiff breeze that blew and a couple snakes and small rabbits that hadn't been killed yet moving around quietly. Other than that small amount of activity, all was quiet. He vaguely wondered how far behind whatever regiments Gregory had moving west were and if the insane Smoker himself was with them. Had he stayed in Colorado? How had he reacted to Caden's death at the cabin? Had he cared? The two had appeared close. Caden had had an undying loyalty to the Smoker. He had appeared to be just a regular guy striving to survive and get at least a few people to like him even though he had appeared standoffish. Gregory may have corrupted his mind into believing that humans were the enemy or that idea may have already been planted and Gregory had just provided the incentive for that seed to sprout. Alec would never know and quite honestly, he didn't want to know, at least not at the moment. All that mattered at the moment was getting into Vegas.

_** And so ends chapter 1 of 'Purge.' I'm hoping this one turns out as good as if not better than 'Separated' did and that y'all enjoyed this first chapter. Leave a review to tell me what you think about it. I use any and all feedback to improve on the story and how it moves so any comments are taken into account when I'm writing chapters and are much appreciated.**_


	2. Land of Confusion

Purge

Chapter 2- Land of Confusion; _Disturbed_

_'I must have dreamed a thousand dreams, been haunted by a million screams. But I can hear the marching feet, they're moving into the street. Now did you see the news today? They say that danger's gone away.'_

"_Confusion heard his voice, and a wild uproar Stood ruled, stood vast infinitude confined; Till at his second bidding darkness fled, Light shone, and order from disorder sprang."- John Milton_

All was quiet in the encampment until about two hours before dawn. Alec was just about to get up and kick either Spirit or Wolfen awake when the night was shattered by a scream. At first he thought it was Spirit because of the sheer pitch but when he heard her groggy curse and the scrambling of her feet in the sand. The Hunter spun around to see that Wolfen had scrambled back several feet from where he had been laying and that Spirit had a rattlesnake by the neck, writhing in her hand. Her eyes were half lidded as she ran her free hand through her hair and staggered off silently into the brush to throw the snake away at a safe distance. She still moved with a limp from the break but it wasn't as obvious.

Alec shifted his red eyes to Wolfen who was breathing hard to calm himself down from the scare. The human froze when he felt the piercing stare of the Hunter on him and turned away with a incoherent grumble. Spirit lumbered back, rubbing her eyes and yawning widely. She kicked Wolfen in the knee as she moved past him and she then proceeded to kick Philo, Ellis, and Joshua awake as well. "If half of us're awake, the other half may as well get up too." she practically growled when Alec gave her a questioning look.

"How did you grab that snake so fast anyway?" he asked as he got to his feet.

Spirit snorted and cracked her knuckles. "By wasting ten of my sixteen years watching Animal Planet." she grunted. She watched as quietly as the rest of the group stood up and began leading the way down the embankment toward the highway. Wolfen fell in behind her while Alec and Ellis, still half asleep moved to the side a bit. Philo hung at the back, mulling silently while Joshua hung somewhat awkwardly in the center. They traveled in that formation until they reached the outskirts of Las Vegas at around noon. A large blockade cut them off from the east side of the city and didn't appear easy to scale or creep around. The land was generally flat with a few scrubby bits of plant here and there.

"Looks like we might have to wait 'till night." Philo muttered, coming to stand at Alec's shoulder. "We'll stand out too much trying to sneak around it. 'Specially if they have sentries." he scanned the blockade with his single eye and snorted.

"I could try and get closer, see if there's a blind spot." the Hunter suggested, shifting his weight some as he examined the wall and the multitude of heavy guns that lined it. It would probably be suicide if he attempted it but he figured he should throw the suggestion out there.

"Or we could go in." Wolfen cut in, turning from where he was at Spirit's back to lock his eyes on the Hunter's then the Smoker's. "You guys creep around to the south side and we'll take out some of the blockade. Just enough to create a window for you all to sneak in."

"That's suicide." Joshua protested, his blue eyes wide with a semblance of horror. "I mean, I know we can't stay out here in the desert for another day with how low our resources have gotten, but you'll get yourselves killed going in there."

Wolfen and Spirit exchanged slightly amused looks and snorted. "Please." Spirit grunted, narrowing her eyes at Joshua. "We've watched how the Infected, especially ones like Hunters and Jockeys move and can mimic them almost perfectly. We won't get caught until we're breathing down their necks." she stretched her short fingers to their full length then curled her hands into fists. "Y'all just move to the south side and we'll get you an opening." without a word exchanged between them, the two humans moved off silently through the desert toward the blockade, keeping themselves low to the ground so it would be harder to spot them.

"Well you heard 'em." Ellis sighed, staring after them with concern glittering in his bright blue eyes. "Let's get to the south of the city." he flicked his eyes from face to face, looking for approval of the decision before turning and moving in a wide arc around the massive city. They stayed on a slight hill on the side opposite Las Vegas so their chances of being caught were less and stopped when they had covered a decent amount of ground. The four sat on the hill, watching the distant shapes of Wolfen and Spirit scale the roughly one and a half story high wall of cars, old wood, buses, and other scattered items the soldiers could find. A couple times their cover was almost blown when a piece of the rickety wall fell loose and a soldier came over to investigate but they always managed to scramble under a car or into a hole before they were spotted.

Wolfen reached up first when a soldier passed once they reached the top, pulling him over the edge and throwing him to the ground head first. The noise drew the other six patrolling that section of the wall over to the area. That gave Spirit the opportunity to swing herself up behind them and cut two of the soldiers throats with the two pocket knives she carried on her. Wolfen then pulled himself up and started bashing heads with the butt of his shotgun. When the remaining soldiers were either dead or unconscious, one of them popped a flare from a flare gun found on the wall and clambered down the city side as more soldiers came running. "C'mon." Philo hissed, jumping to his feet and leading the way toward the wall.

As they reached the wall, the sounds of furious fighting and gunshots came into earshot. The four climbed the wall as fast as they could but it appeared the humans had lead the soldiers down an alley or a block or something because they weren't in their line of sight. Ellis and Joshua took the opportunity to pick up a couple SCAR's and ammo from the downed soldiers as Alec leaped onto the roof of a low building near by to go provide back up for Spirit and Wolfen. Ellis watched his back closely, following the Hunter's retreating form to find out where exactly the soldiers had been led. When Alec dived down into an alley with a screech, the remaining three sprinted down some makeshift stairs and toward the alley. By the time they reached it however, all the soldiers were down and Alec and the two humans were covered in blood.

"Welcome to Vegas boys." Spirit cackled as she wiped blood from her eyes. Her eyes clouded over for a brief moment before she seemed to almost physically shake herself and forced a grin.

"We should get out of here." Alec said, wiping his claws on his pant leg lightly. "There will be more coming when they discover what happened to this squad." the rest nodded and they silently moved into the more casino filled section of the city as compared to the residential section they were in. Spirit inadvertently lead them to a hotel and casino called the 'Mirage' which she said she had stayed in when she visited the town when she was about four or five years old.

"So its been about twelve years since you've been here, yet you remember basically all of it?" Joshua asked when she lead them through the main lobby.

"Yup. I'm well traveled for a simpleton from Texas." she chuckled from somewhere deep in her throat and moved toward the stairs, murmuring to herself, "I wonder what they did with the tigers." her musings were answered when they came up to the glass walls behind which laid nothing but large feline skeletons. "They didn't even let them out in the desert?" she growled to herself, slamming one fist into the glass before moving away quietly. Joshua half expected Wolfen to follow her but he remained at the back of the group, watching her retreating back as she limped down the halls, her eyes scanning each exhibit.

Eventually they found a large suite in which all six of them could stay in comfortably and waited until sundown to go looking for their missing team mate. They found her sitting at a righted table in a cafe that sat on the lobby level, playing with one of her pocket knives with thoughtful eyes. She appeared lost in memories but glanced up when Ellis approached her table, the others a bit too scared and Joshua and Wolfen not present, having gone looking on the second floor. "You alright?" he asked, sitting across from her.

"Perfectly fine, just remembering." was her simple answer. She clicked the knife closed and stood up quickly staring down at Ellis with cold gray-blue eyes. It seemed like she wanted to say something but she just let out a huffing sigh and turned around. She followed at the back of the group as they picked up Joshua and Wolfen and moved up to the third floor where their suite was. "Yeah, you guys have fun with your gay orgy. I'm gonna find my own room." Spirit said suddenly, seeming to pull herself out of her musings.

"Why?" Joshua asked, tilting his head and ignoring the snipe on their sexualities.

"Because there's something that you all don't have in common with me." at his confused silence she sighed and shoved him. "I'm a goddamn girl you numbnut. Privacy is on a whole different level for me. And when presented with the opportunity to get some privacy, especially after almost a year traveling around with a _guy,_" she shot a look at Wolfen who glanced away innocently, "I'm defiantly gonna jump at it. So se la vi and good night to you boys." with that final, almost brittle comment, she waved them off and moved down the hall some before pushing open a door on the other end of the hall and entering it. An awkward silence stretched between the five males left standing in the hall but it was broken quickly when Joshua coughed.

"I'm going to go back downstairs and see if there's any supplies to be had. Any of you wanna come with me?" he flicked his blue eyes between the other four. Wolfen eventually sighed and stepped forward to go with him, shouldering his shotgun reluctantly and shifting on his sore feet as Philo, Alec, and Ellis moved into the suite and closed the door behind them. They were almost down to the lobby level when Joshua broke the silence between them. "Sometimes I fell outta place with those three." he blurted, his face dusting a light shade of red.

"Why's that?"

"Well..." Joshua ran a hand through his black hair and sighed, continuing haltingly, "Alec's my younger brother and all, but I never really hung around him much. None of our family really wanted anything to do with him. To my father and my older brothers, he was 'the accident,' the one who should have been aborted. I was more or less ordered to stay away from him." he snorted and shook his head as they entered the kitchen. "And with Ellis... I never really talk to him. He stays close to Alec as often as he can so I never really get the chance to have a conversation with him without Alec breathing down my neck."

When Joshua got quiet for a long time, Wolfen prompted him, peering at him curiously. "And what about Philo?"

"I... well..." Joshua cut himself off with a sigh and a slight blush. "I thought I had something with him but... after a series of unforeseen events we kinda grew apart and nothing really happened. I see him more as a brother or a best friend now that something... more." he shook himself mentally and looked at Wolfen, who was busying himself with looking through the kitchen's pantry for any canned foods. "So how do you and Spirit know each other. You don't seems like you're a Texan like her and Philo."

The taller male snorted out a laugh, examining a can of peas as he replied. "I'm not. I'm from West Virginia. I met Spirit through a gaming community called Steam and we kinda just stuck together after that." he shrugged. "The first time I saw her in person I didn't recognize her because I had only seen one picture of her whereas she had seen many of me. She's not one for cameras and has told me herself that she runs from them. She saved my ass from a horde when I triggered a car alarm running from a Hunter in Oklahoma City, which is where we agreed to meet up. And then I shot her in the foot..." he grimaced and covered quickly, "it was an accident believe me. She had punched me in the gut for being such a defensive ass after she had just saved me."

"She seems to abuse you a lot." Joshua chuckled, stacking a couple cans of beans on a stove.

"I think its a way of showing affection and that she cares." Wolfen shrugged, not seeming sure of it himself. "Neither of us really had friends before we met each other so I don't think she really knows how to... _properly_ act around others." he shrugged again and stacked a couple cans of corn beside Joshua's beans.

"If you boys are done talking about me behind my back..." came a contained voice from the kitchen doors. The turned to see Spirit giving them both a withering look. "did you find any food?" she asked, moving into the room.

"Yeah, just some canned corn and beans. Nothing special." Joshua replied sheepishly, rubbing the back of his head. Spirit gave him a lightly amused look and leaned against a counter, rubbing her shoulder lightly, seeming to loose herself in her own thoughts before focusing back on them.

"We should be able to stay here for a couple days. With the size of this city, it'll take the soldiers ages to find where we ran off to if they're wanting to hunt us down." she smirked, still holding her shoulder. "Hey come over her and yank on my arm will you?" she slid her eyes past Joshua to Wolfen who sighed, rolled his eyes and moved to her. He yanked hard on her arm which moved back into its socket with a sickening pop, making Joshua wince at the sound. "So will this be enough to feed us tonight?"

"It should." Wolfen sighed, staring slightly mournfully at the meager rations they had scraped up. "We might have to raid the buildings bordering this one if we're going to stay here for a few days." he turned his back to Joshua and muttered low enough so only Spirit heard him. "They may have been traveling with humans for a long time but I still don't trust the control on those two Infected."

"Oh lay off would you? If they really wanted to they could have killed us all already but they haven't. I mean seriously, we've been traveling with them for two months, nearly starved twice, and nearly froze and or died countless times." she shoved him roughly and ducked past him, picking up a couple of the cans. "I don't know about you two but I could go for a nice sirloin steak right about now." she forced a smirk, giving Wolfen a hard look as he frowned at her. He said nothing, allowing Joshua and Spirit to converse between them as they went back to the third floor. The single female of the group took a can of corn with her into her room, handing the rest she was carrying to Joshua, giving Wolfen a glare, and disappearing into the confines of her chosen room.

The next two days passed in a similar fashion. Two or three were chosen at about midday to go downstairs and to the neighboring buildings to look for food, one was set in the lobby to run upstairs if any soldiers in either the human military or even Gregory's army came near the Mirage. Spirit kept herself off of speaking terms with Wolfen until he finally got over a bit of his distrust for the two Special Infected and made an effort to get along with them and get to know them.

Alec was on watch as the sun went down on their third night in the Mirage when the front door was blown open. Coughing in the smoke produced by the grenade, he leaped to his feet and scrambled upstairs as gunfire rang through the lobby, catching a bullet in the shoulder as he made his mad dash. "We have to get out of here!" he yelped as he got to the suite where the other five were gathered, sharing light conversation. "The lobby doors were just blown wide open." he winced, griping his shoulder. The other five leaped up, following Alec as he lead the way down the stairwell of the fire exit and out a side door. A decent sized squad of human soldiers were clustered at the front of the building, ready to take their turn to enter. Behind them sat a huge, diesel run truck.

"Hey, we could use that." Ellis panted, pointing at the building. "It would get us out of town and over the mountains a lot faster." he nodded at Alec, who was by far the quickest and nimblest of the group and the Hunter nodded back, darting forward. He cut through the line of soldiers before they realized he was there and tore the driver of the truck out of his seat, cutting his throat open with a swipe of long, deadly claws. Time almost seemed to slow as three soldiers clustered near the front of the truck turned and aimed. Alec ducked into a crouch and launched himself at the humans, driving his claws into the soft belly of one and cutting open the face of the second. The third stumbled back with a terrified scream that was cut off with a hack as his neck was snapped as Philo wrapped his long tongue around it and jerked. He waved the humans waiting on the side of the building over. They sprinted forward and piled into the back of the truck as Alec swung into the drivers seat and Philo into the passengers and tore out of the lot. He took to the highway, the speedometer never dipping below ninety until they chugged to a halt high up in the mountains, their gas spent.

"Holy shit..." Philo sighed, putting emphasis on each syllable. "You drive worse'n Ellis."

"Don't let him hear you say that." Alec chuckled as he stepped out of the truck. The humans more or less fell out of the back, almost kissing the ground with relieved groans. The Hunter looked up at the enormous redwood evergreens that towered above them and frowned thoughtfully. Those would be a challenge to scale even for him but he doubted it would come to that. "At least we're out of Vegas. About how close is this place to LA?" he looked at the lone female with a curious gleam in his eyes as she stood up from her seated position on the road.

Glancing around with narrowed eyes Spirit let out a surprised noise. "Well between being jarred around like a fish in a bag, I'd say we covered quite a bit of ground. We're in Redwood National Park. Its not far from LA I believe." this brought some relief to the rest of them, especially now that the sun was going down.

"We can try and find a ranger station or we can sleep in this truck. Which would you all prefer?" Philo asked, glancing between the others. They voted for staying with the truck and moving on in the morning. It was big enough for the six of them to stretch out in the back even if they were packed in like sardines. At least they would be out of any nasty weather that might roll past and out of the wind.

"And hopefully no snakes sneak up on poor Wolfen." Spirit cackled, making a clawing motion and hissing at her taller companion who glared at her. They bickered for a while before Alec and Philo had to get between them when it looked like punches were about to be thrown. They didn't know if it would actually happen but the two humans had been increasingly jumpy since they had joined up with the larger group. The Infected both reasoned that it was because they were used to it just being the two of them, but also considered the possibility that one or both of them had had issues with larger groups in the past. Either was possible but it seemed like they were taking a long time to adjust relying on more than just themselves and the Hunter and Smoker both figured one or both of them would go off on their own eventually. Spirit seemed to be the more stubborn, independent of the two and they figured that if she took off, chances were Wolfen would follow her, go off on his own or stay with Alec and the rest. But even that was a chance. He might go off on his own and Spirit might decide to go her own way or stay with the group. But that wasn't important in their minds at the moment. The only thing that really mattered was getting a good night's sleep and having a fresh start in the morning.

_**Yeah this one focuses a lot on Spirit and Wolfen, sorta defining their place in the group and how they fit in among them. It also characterized Joshua in a way that he didn't get in 'Separated' and explained the ever present question, 'what happened between him and Philo?' I've gotten that so many times I've run outta fingers and toes to count it on. Anyway, enjoy and review. All reviews are taken into consideration for improvement and even ideas and concepts on future chapters.**_


	3. Ready To Fall

Purge

_**Alright, a heads up here for the future of this story. Part of it is going to focus on Alec and part of it is going to focus on Spirit. Why? Because a) its a good way to show both sides of the Infection , the human side and the Infected side, and b) I'm a narcissist. No not really, there's a reason for it focusing on Spirit and you'll see that later on.**_

Chapter 3- Ready To Fall; _Rise Against_

_'Perpetual motion, the image won't focus, a blur is all that's seen. But here in this moment like the eye of the storm, it all came clear to me. I found a shoulder to lean on, an infallible reason to live all by itself. I took one last look from the heights that I once loved and then I ran like hell.'_

"_What hurts the most is that the memories I used to hold so close to me are now memories I wish I could forget forever."- Unknown_

The air was misty and silent when Alec blinked awake. The sun was barely above the horizon, a filtering gray light lighting the red bark of the enormous pines around the truck. He sat up, stretching his arms above his head and sucked in a deep breath. The smell of dried blood was thick in the small covered bed of the truck where the Hunter and his five companions were crammed. He was smashed between Ellis and Spirit, who both had, during the night, kicked him multiple times and Spirit had also landed a punch to his neck in her sleep. He didn't know what the female had been dreaming about but he felt sorry for the person she was possibly beating up in it. Climbing over Ellis, Philo and Joshua, Alec hopped out of the bed of the truck, his feet landing softly on the needle covered ground. Looking up, he was awed at the sheer size of the trees around him which seemed to be trying to touch the clouds.

Stretching his sore back, the Hunter walked around to the front of the truck, peering down the misty road to see if he could see any buildings they could raid. None came into his line of sight but there had to be some down the road somewhere. The had blown past the park sign the night before so there were bound to be some ranger stations or cabins somewhere where they could pick up some supplies. A roughly stifled coughing made him turn to see Spirit hopping out of the back of the truck, her back tense with the effort to stifle her coughing. "Are you getting sick?" he asked when she approached him, swallowing a couple more coughs.

"No." she ground out roughly, waving her hand in front of her face. "Its the pine trees. They irritate my sinuses." she shrugged as if to say no big deal. "It'll pass by the end of the day. Should we wake up the hibernating bears back there?" she jerked her head at the truck where a couple of snores could be heard. Alec rolled his eyes but nodded and proceeded to help Spirit pull their four other companions out of the truck and into a heap on the ground.

"Wake up. We need to get moving." Alec growled, his eyes dancing with amusement as he got four almost identical glares. They all gathered up their respective packs and started moving slowly down the road, always keeping an eye out for a place to raid and an ear out for any approaching threats. Everyone was being quiet, the silence only shattered by occasional coughs from Philo or Spirit as both of their sinuses acted up in the increased altitude and with all the pine trees around them.

When the sun was beating down on them from above the trees, they ran across a ranger station. Its door was made of metal and the windows were boarded up. The only way in was through a small hole in the roof and when it was realized that Alec couldn't fit through, he looked to Joshua and Spirit, who were the shortest of the group, both being about the same height. "Hey, don't look at me. I would never be able to get these shoulders of mine through that." Spirit almost instantly snapped, crossing her arms.

"I've seen you squeeze into smaller." Wolfen muttered, glancing innocently at the sky when she glared at him. Joshua shook his head, approaching the side of the building and reaching up to grasp his brother's hand and be hoisted up. Alec pulled him up and then lowered him down into the hole, dropping him onto a file cabinet. From there he slid to the ground, his black hair and dark clothes making him blend into the darkness below. He started tossing cans up to Alec, picking his way through the darkness. A single corpse, now no more than a skeleton, lay against one wall, clutching a rifle. He took the clip from it and the box of ammo that sat beside the skeleton, holding onto it as he searched through any drawers he could open. When his inspection was complete, he clambered back onto the file cabinet and allowed Alec to lift him back through, dropping back to the ground.

"God, it reeks in there." he groaned once his feet touched the ground. Alec landed beside him, snorting in agreement, having gotten more than his fair share of the smell from his perch outside the hole. "So how big is this place exactly?"

"Hell I don't remember." Spirit replied with a shrug, not really looking at Joshua. Her eyes flickered back and forth for a moment with a far away glaze to them as if she were reliving her time spent here before she shook her head. "I was five when I was last here." she coughed as a soft breeze blew some more pine tree pollen and such at her and cleared her throat. Joshua exchanged a look with Alec and shrugged, allowing the Hunter to take the lead as they continued down the road that would eventually lead them out of the mountains. The sun was going down by the time they reached the outskirts. A dilapidated ticket booth looking building lay leaning to one side on the side of the road, making for a sorry excuse of a shelter but a shelter none the less.

Spirit volunteered to take first watch, sitting by the open doorway with her sniper rifle propped against one shoulder. She stared blankly out into the forest, her blurry vision focused on memories that had been pushed far back in her mind until now. Her head throbbed sharply as she saw ghostly images of herself as a small child by her grandmother's side, watching deer in the treeline. Images of picking up pine cones and sticks to take home even though they weren't supposed to. Shaking her head, she forced herself to focus as a twig snapped in the trees not too far away. Picking up her rifle, she put an eye to the scope, zooming in on the area where the sound had come from. She puffed out a breath when she realized it was nothing but a surviving deer, cantering out of the forest in search of food. "Paranoid..." she muttered to herself, her voice a low rumble in her throat.

Looking over her shoulder she narrowed her eyes at her five companions. In their faces, she saw the faces of her family members and the same guilt she had been hiding for almost a year reared its head again. Shaking her head roughly, she raked a hand through her short hair and turned around to glare out into the darkness. She knew they had their doubts about her and about each other and could see several reasons why. She was legally blind and about as close to being lame as she could get without actually being there. Wolfen was distrustful and twitchy though he was a good friend and a loyal one too. She knew he would adjust to the company of other eventually and still wasn't absolutely sure why he was so unwilling to trust newcomers. He had never told her why whenever she had inquired, nothing but a shadow of a painful memory passing over his expression before disappearing. Philo seemed concerned and stressed out, his face seeming to be set in a perpetual scowl ever since they had left Las Vegas. He was worried about his friends and about what might happen to them and himself if either the human military or Gregory's army got their hands on them. Joshua didn't seem outwardly stressed out but there was an underlying nervousness that showed that past events were effecting him more than he let on. Ellis also didn't let his stress and nervousness show but the way he stayed close to Alec was enough do draw the conclusion that he had come close to a breaking point several times. As for the Hunter himself, the situations they were in where turning him into an angry, quick to act and attack killing machine. It was slow and subtle but Spirit could see it in his face that he was struggling with the urge to kill. Whether it was his conscious mind or his Infected mind that was making him that way she didn't know and didn't want to know but she had been keeping an eye on him for a couple weeks.

Her throat itched with the urge to cough but she swallowed it, not wanting to possibly give away their position to any lurking soldiers or Infected. Glancing up at the sky, she noted the position of the moon and stood up, stepping out of the ramshackle building. Holding her sniper rifle tightly, she limped her way in a wide arc around the building, stepping over branches and sliding her feet across the pine needles carefully to remain as quiet as possible. She and Wolfen both had closely studied the Infected and how they moved and stalked and hunted. The applied those movements to their daily lives, allowing them to move through the toughest terrain as quietly as any Hunter or Smoker or Jockey. A year of conditioning had turned two inactive teens into lethal killing machines and both of them used it to their advantage any time they could whether it be stalking or making a quick and quiet escape.

Stopping, Spirit drew in a deep breath through her mouth and held it. Ahead of her she could hear movement, quiet but there and not the movement of any deer or bear she had ever heard. Tightening her grip on her rifle, she slid forward, pressing her shoulder to the massive trunk of a redwood and peering around the side of it. She jerked back quickly when her blurry eyes landed on what was making the noise. A Hunter was bending over a deer's carcass, tearing into it with vicious hunger, clawing and biting tearing at tendons and skin. Swallowing, she debated on whether or not to take a shot and get rid of the beast before it could pester her or her companions. Her hesitation was enough for a breeze to blow past her, carrying her scent to the Hunter. She heard it stop eating, start sniffing the air. It let out a growl and she heard it move to one side. The sound vanished with a small rustle and she knew it had leaped into a tree. Which one was too difficult for her to tell by sound alone and her eyes were too weak to see where it went in the darkness.

"Shit... the first time I wander off by myself in a long time and I run into this problem." she muttered to herself, keeping her voice low enough to where she could barely hear it. A growl above her was just enough warning for her to push off of the trunk of the redwood as the Hunter leaped down from its perch above her. She slid on the pine needles, turning on her heel while clicking the safety off of her rifle. By the time she aimed it, however, the Hunter was gone. Holding absolutely still, she closed her eyes and held her breath, listening to the soft sound of shifting pine needles as the beast crept around to her left side. Spinning on her heel, she brought her rifle up and opened her eyes as she cracked it down on the shoulder of the Hunter as it tried to make a grab for her. It howled in pain as its shoulder popped out of his socket, scrambling back before Spirit could hit it again, this time in the skull. While it was distracted with its own pain, she started moving back in the direction of the ramshackle building, keeping her eyes trained on the snarling beast.

When it turned its burning red eyes on her, she lifted the scope of the gun to her eye and prepared to pull the trigger but the Hunter crouched and took off through the forest, away from her and her companions. Snorting, Spirit turned and started warily making her way back to the building. None of the other five had been woken up by the noise but when she entered it, she instantly kicked Philo awake. The Smoker glared at her, holding his stomach as he sat up but didn't say a word as he settled himself in the doorway of the building.

In the morning, Alec found the half eaten deer carcass along with the fresh smell of another Hunter. When he ran across Spirit's scent in the same area however, he instantly knew she had gone exploring by herself. He didn't say anything, however, when he saw that she wasn't hurt. That hadn't been the first time she had wandered off on her own. She had done so once before when they had just left the mountains but were still in Colorado. She had been on watch one night and had gotten up in the middle of it and walked off into the surrounding wilderness. She came back at dawn with some fresh claw marks and a bite to show for her curiosity and had gotten a stern scolding by both Wolfen and Joshua as well but both were blatantly ignored.

Glancing down at the sole female of the group, Alec narrowed his eyes. She had adopted a far away look in her eyes the longer they stayed in the forest and he was beginning to worry. He knew he wasn't the only one as well who was noticing it. The closer they got to Los Angelas, the further away Spirit's mind seemed to be and if they ran into trouble, the Hunter couldn't be sure she would be focused enough to get out of it. But that wasn't his concern at the moment. They had to get out of the park and down into the valley below it before the next night came in order to make good time, so he quickly shook his companions awake and ignored their grumbles and curses as they prepared to set out.

Two days passed from that moment and they had entered the Manhattan Beach area of LA. Spirit hadn't spoken a single word all day, leading them silently through the shops and closed up cafes and restaurants, past overturned and abandoned military vehicles and skeletons that had been baked white in the sun. Finally, she stopped, peering up at a huge, three story peach colored building with almost doleful eyes and the closest expression to crying she had ever adopted. "This it?" Ellis asked quietly, moving from Alec's side to stand at her shoulder, seeing the torment in her face. She nodded quietly, not making any move to step into the yard. Ellis turned to Alec, his eyes speaking for him and the Hunter moved forward quietly, brushing past Spirit and walking up the steps to the stoop of the front door. He tried the knob, finding it locked. Holding onto the doorknob, he rammed his shoulder into the door a couple times before it popped open.

"I'll take a look around inside, make sure its safe." he said to the other five. Four nodded. Slipping into the dark house, Alec turned to the left, going down a couple flights of stares to a large basement. Two bedrooms lay opposite to each other with a small bathroom beside one and a door leading to a garage. Climbing back up the stairs, he stepped into an opened area with double doors leading to a master suite with a bathroom and bedroom to its left and a study like room to its right along with a linen closet. Up another flight of stairs, on the third floor, was a large open room on either sides of the balcony overlooking the stairs with dusty, ornate tables in each. Parallel halls lead to a kitchen and and a smaller living room along with a small bathroom and dining room. There were no bodies and no living creatures inside that Alec could see or scent so he leaped over the railing, landing on the dusty off-white carpet near the main entrance to the house. "Alright. All clear." The filed in slowly, Spirit dragging herself in last, looking around with glistening eyes and letting out a small whimper. Alec laid a hand on her shoulder and did his best to smile reassuringly but she shrugged him off and headed right for the third floor living room, no other sound coming from her throat.

_**Yeah, this chapter was mainly to show both Alec's and Spirit's view of things crammed into one before I start separating the views. You'll see that next chapter but until then review would ya! Not to be a whiny little bitch but... I'm kinda disappointed. I was blown off my feet at the response Separated got from my readers and this one is hardly getting... anything. But I'm not gonna drag anything out y'all. Hope ya enjoyed this chapter!**_


	4. My Skin

Purge

Chapter 4- My Skin; _Natalie Merchant_

_'Contempt loves the silence, it thrives in the dark with fine winding tendrils that strangle the heart. They say that promises sweeten the blow but I don't need them. No I don't need them.'_

"_Pain is inevitable, suffering is optional."- M. Kathleen Casey_

_"My baby girl." Stop it... "You did so good!" Stop it. "I love you Alex." _"Stop it!" Spirit's eyes flew open and she jerked upright, her breath coming in short gasps and a cold sweat running down the back of her neck. She had been in the former home of her aunt for two days and the memories had been getting sharper and more painful with each passing minute. Squeezing her eyes closed, she tried to block out the images of her time spent in the house she was in now from when she was a mere five year old child. She was sixteen now and the memories were as sharp as if they had happened yesterday. She could still see the black lab mix running up and down the stairs chasing her for hours on end.

Shaking her head, Spirit opened her eyes and stood up from the bed she had claimed. She could already hear the footsteps tromping down the stairs and approaching her door so she beat the person to it and opened the door, allowing Wolfen to barrel right inside and trip on the carpet. "Yeah sure, come on in. For all you knew I coulda been naked." she grunted, crossing her arms but keeping her scathing voice low so she wouldn't wake up Joshua, who was sleeping in the bedroom across the large basement from her. "Geeze, can't I get an hour to myself?" she stepped around Wolfen as he straightened his stance and pulled some of his dignity back in to level her with a look through stormy blue eyes.

"What were you yelling at? Another nightmare?" he asked, his expression as firm as a stone face of a mountain. Spirit frowned but didn't answer him, fiddling with the coarse edge of a quilt she had been laying under. "You know you can talk to me about it right? God knows I've vented plenty of mine to you."

"No matter how much I begged you to stop?" Spirit smirked and sighed. "Its nothing. Just... being in this house is... well its bringing back a lot of memories I'd rather keep buried." she waved him off and flopped out on her back with a sigh. She really didn't want to talk to anybody at the moment. The only thing she did want was to be alone with her thoughts but the only way she would be able to do that is if she managed to get onto the roof. The only problem was that she wouldn't be able to get back down and Alec would have to carry her, sacrificing whatever dignity she had managed to preserve while traveling with five men. All of which were older than her.

She felt Wolfen sit on the bed beside her but he didn't speak. Both of them were silent for a long time before Wolfen shifted one hand. After another heartbeat of hesitation, he took one finger and prodded Spirit's ribs. She let out a low noise and shifted away and gave him a mild glare. He hid a grin and prodded her side again, getting his hand slapped away that time. Taking a chance, he tried again but before he could touch her, his hand had been grabbed and she had swung her legs around and pushed him from sitting on the bed to kneeling on the floor. From there she planted a foot on his butt and kicked him, sending his forehead into the door fame with a loud bang. "Ow!" he yelped, forgetting to stifle it until he heard a snort from the other room. Spirit snickered and kicked him out the door roughly and closed it on his backside as Joshua opened his door to glare out. "Its not my fault!" she heard Wolfen protest as Joshua stalked up to him. It was before dawn and no one in their group was keen on getting up that early now that they were somewhere safe. Joshua, Alec, and Spirit were three out of the six who were forces to be reckoned with if they were woken up early for a stupid reason, Joshua in particular. Despite his timid nature he had a nasty temper when he was first woken up and a mean left hook. "If you want someone to glare at, go see Spirit."

"Joshua if you come in here I'm going to murder you." Spirit growled on the other side of the door making it clear she didn't want to be disturbed. "Go back to bed both of you." about thirty seconds after both of them had returned to their respective rooms, Spirit remained pressed against her door. Sighing, she looked to her left where she remembered a television stand had once been where one of her cousins had kept his PS2 and a bunch of games. He would always bring her down into his room to play video games with her and would always let her win no matter how much he wanted to overtake her in races or throw a killing blow in a fighting game. Chewing on her bottom lip, she opened her door quietly and crept up the stairs, peering around the corners to make sure Wolfen or Alec weren't lurking on the stairs. Alec was known to wake up in the middle of the night and peel himself away from Ellis to go to each bedroom to make sure his friends were all still there and breathing.

When she didn't see either of them on the flight leading to the second floor, she made her way up to the third floor, barely swallowing a startled yelp when she collided with Philo. "Jesus man, what the hell are you doing up this early? I thought you rose with the sun?" she snapped, rubbing her sore nose from where it had collided with his chest. The Smoker looked at her carefully, his single milky yellow eye glistening in the dark as he seemed to analyze every inch of her. Shifting on the step she had stumbled back to, Spirit tried to push her way around him but she caught her arm with his.

"Wait." he grunted. "I wanna talk to ya."

"To me? I thought your go-to buddy was Alec?"

"How about some compensation? I found some coffee in the kitchen and can make some for us if you'll sit down and talk ta me."

Spirit's eyebrows just about shot into her hairline at the mention of coffee. She hadn't had any since the day she had left her home when the Infection was first getting its feet. She had missed having a cup every morning and had had to adjust to the lack of caffeine quickly when her temper almost drove Wolfen into going off on his own. Spirit followed the Smoker like a lost puppy into the kitchen where a rigged up coffee pot was already dripping. When she motioned at it with a confused look Philo forced a grin and a chuckle. "I majored in electronics. Found a solar charger for a phone and rigged it to the wire for the coffee pot."

"And the water?" she asked suspiciously, narrowing her eyes at him in the darkness. When he didn't answer her she wrinkled her nose at the dripping pot and made a low sound in her throat. "Well, the heat should cook off any nasty bugs and such. Now, what did you wanna talk about?" she was almost dreading his answer but braced herself anyway.

"There's somethin goin on in that head of yours," he tapped her forehead lightly making her pull away with a grunt. "Why won't you tell anyone what you're thinkin? Its not like we'll judge ya. We all have our own demons to face you know."

The lone female of the group sighed and leaned against the counter, swallowing thickly. "I know. I've just never been able to talk to anyone about my problems before... well... before the Infection and before I met up with Wolfen in Oklahoma City." raking a hand through her hair, she shook her head. "I mean yeah, we would talk a lot online but there's only so much you can tell a person through text."

"And when you met up with him?" Philo prompted when she was quiet for a long time.

"When I met up with him?" she parroted with a bitter bark of laughter. "He was running from a horde and a Hunter so I climb up on a rig and save his ass. And what does he do? Shoot me in the foot. Granted I had punched him in the gut for being such an insensitive jerk but still." she was quiet for several moments after that. "And there's things he hasn't told me just like there's things I haven't told him. And I believe it'll remain that way."

Philo narrowed his eye. He could tell there was more than what she was telling him, he could see the underlying guilt of some past event set so far back in her mind that she couldn't bring herself to speak it without causing herself emotional pain. No matter how hard she tried to hide it, he could see her eyes glistening in the darkness, her normally icy gray-blue eyes wet with tears she refused to let fall. "You know, its not a sign of weakness to cry." he whispered, noticing her stiffen. She didn't move, didn't allow her face to change in the slightest, she simply stared at the wall opposite her. Gently, Philo rested his hand on one shoulder, feeling her jerk almost violently under the sudden touch.

She yanked herself out from under his hand and turned to glare at him. "What do you know? What makes you suddenly think you know what I'm thinking about? How much pain I'm in being in this house after I _abandoned_ my family without even a goodbye!" she burst suddenly, shouting as loud as her voice would allow. "And honestly, as far as I'm concerned, I should have been killed a long time ago!" she spun on her heel, stalking out of the room leaving Philo standing stunned by the counter as doors opened downstairs and the other four came out of their rooms to find out what the sudden noise was about.

"Spirit, what's going on?" Ellis asked with a thick voice as she shoved past him roughly, her body trembling.

"Nothing." she snapped, glaring over her shoulder at him before ducking around Joshua and Wolfen as they tried to stop her from going any further and explain. Alec stepped in front of her, grabbing her shoulders and forcing her to look at him before he would release her. His expression told her to calm down, to not do anything stupid but it just made her even more wound up, angry, and distressed. She jerked away from his grip, her heel hitting a stair hard and almost sending her onto her back but she caught herself on the rail. "Get out of my way."

"Not until you explain what's wrong." the Hunter crossed his arms, staring at her with piercing crimson eyes. She looked from face to face quickly in the darkness, glad they couldn't really make out her expression in the dim light.

Sucking in a deep breath, she straightened her back and curled her fists at her side. "You wanna know what's wrong? Fine. I've come to a conclusion." clenching her teeth, she forced each word out like they were wads of thorns she was being forced to choke up. "I've realized that... I did just fine on my own before, and I'll be able to do just fine on my own now. I'm leaving." a chorus of protests pierced the air around her, each striking her like a hammer to a nail head and forcing her closer to tears with each one.

"You can't." Joshua protested, his voice cracking.

"If you're leaving than I'm going with you." Wolfen declared, trying to lock his eyes onto her's but she wouldn't let him.

"No you're not. I'm going alone." her head throbbed with each syllable, pain lancing through her mind and through her heart as she saw the shock in his eyes, the betrayal. She had just given a whole new reason to not trust anyone but couldn't say anything, her throat was trying to close off.

"But you'll come back right?" Ellis asked hopefully, his eyes glittering in the predawn light. She turned her blurry stare to him, her expression hard and he shrunk back. "Oh..." he whispered, glancing away before looking back at her. "Please Spirit, don't do this."

"Why shouldn't I? Can any of you honestly say you want a legally blind, virtually crippled, in-between tagging along behind you all the time?" she spat scornfully, her eyes shimmering in the moonlight that stabbed through a window above the stairs. "I'm leaving and I'm not coming back." betrayal showed clear as day in each of their faces. _I'm sorry! _She wanted to wail but didn't. _You wouldn't understand..._without a backwards glance at any of them, she turned, shoved past Alec and stomped down the stairs to grab her bag. Going through it to dump anything she didn't need, she pulled out a small black object. Running the pad of her thumb over it, she sighed when it crossed a metal border between the two joined pieces of her old clarinet's mouthpiece and barrel.

"That little thing has saved both our lives more times than I can count." Wolfen's voice whispered behind her. Spirit didn't turn around but she could feel his eyes stabbing the back of her head through the darkness. She simply placed the item back in her bag and zipped up the pouch. Picking it up, she turned on her heel, surprised to see Wolfen a lot closer than he had sounded. She would have heard him if he had moved forward. "Why are you doing this?"

"I can't answer that." she murmured, staring at him but not seeing him, instead seeing her memories of the house play before her eyes. "I'm gonna head north though, find any remaining humans in the area and warn them about the war if they haven't already heard about it."

"Why can't we go with you than?" his voice was tight, carefully restrained anger threatening to break loose on her.

"This is something I want to do alone. I'm never coming back to this place."

"So we'll move to a different house! You don't have to leave, just tell us and we'll move to a different place." he was pleading now, voice still tight. Spirit blinked and focused on him, searching his eyes carefully for any form of understanding for what she was doing. True she was going to move north, but she wasn't going to make a point of finding survivors. She was going off on her own and she was planning to remain alone until the day she finally got picked off by Infected or human alike. Wolfen sucked in a sharp breath and closed his eyes, backing up a couple steps. "Fine, if I can't convince you to stay with us, that at least let me go with you."

"No." was the only word she snapped back, shoving past him and moving toward the door opposite the stairs that lead to the garage of the house. She felt his eyes in the back of her head, joined soon by the rest of the groups' eyes, hard against her departure but torn between helping her or staying where they knew they were safe. "I'll... I'll try and send a message or leave a sign or something if serious shit is about to go down. Do _not_ track me Alec. I know you're going to try to." she didn't look over her shoulder at them but felt Alec's eyes leave her back as she grabbed her sniper rifle, M-16 already strapped to her back. Without another word, she opened the door and stepped out, slamming it behind her with a decisive crack.

Biting her tongue to keep from wailing in pain and despair, she made her way quickly down the street, feeling eyes on her back through windows until she disappeared from view of the house. As soon as she turned a corner, she began to run as fast as her damaged leg would allow. It would never heal properly, even if she broke it again and reset it and splinted it properly. _This limp is going to become a problem, I know it._ She thought, focusing on her leg and bad eyesight to distract her from the throbbing in her head and heart that she felt like a sharp knife being jabbed into her. All she knew was that she had to survive as long as she could, on her own, and hopefully make amends for leaving her family behind.

_**Holy crap I'm rusty with drama like this. And yeah, Spirit's issue will be explained a little bit better in her history whenever I get that up. I should have the first chapter of the histories, Alec's story, up tomorrow sometime. Sorry its taken me so long to get this up, I've had some computer issues. My laptop broke on me and I was able to get my documents off it and that was it. So now I have a spiffy new gaming desktop computer that I love. Heh, reviews are used for future development of the story so all are appreciated!**_


	5. The 5th of March

Purge

_**I live! Sorry its been so long since I updated but... life caught up to me. Summer vacation or not, the family drama never stops and I've been going through driver's ed as well. Oh well, on to the story! .**_

Chapter 5- The Fifth of March; _Megaherz_

_'Eyes which see and understand, how merciless the time passes, like the pointer turns, incessantly... It never stands still. You do not know what you want, you do not know where you stand, you do not know where you come from, where you'll go.'_

"_Betrayal is the only truth that sticks."- Arthur Miller_

The group remained on the stairs in a thick silence until the sun had risen high enough to shine through the windows. The first person that moved was Philo, slowly turning and plodding his way back up to the third floor. Slowly Joshua followed him, chocking back a thick sob and disappearing into a third floor bathroom to think in silence. Eventually Ellis approached Wolfen with Alec at his shoulder, giving him a soft look through blue eyes, hoping to offer up some form of comfort as the taller male stood rigidly, staring at the door with fury and sadness shining in his eyes. "I'm sure she'll come back." Ellis murmured, his voice seeming overly loud in the silent house. He didn't believe his own words.

"No she won't. She's made her decision and she's not going to back out on it." Wolfen's voice was thick, an emotion close to hatred but not quite shooting through each word. "She's done this once before but wandered her way back after a few days. But... she never said she was never coming back." he snapped his mouth shut with a click and he turned to stare at Alec, who felt suddenly cornered. "I don't care what she said, track her and bring her back." he didn't say it like the Hunter had a choice but Alec didn't move.

The Hunter watched as the human's face screwed up in frustration and anger, keeping his silence until the others face began to take on a shade of red that matched Alec's eyes. "I will, in a couple days. If she hasn't realized that she needs the support of a group by then than I'll try and find her." his voice remained low, held deeper in his throat than usual with a more growling note to it that betrayed his anger to the two humans before him. Wolfen was obviously unhappy with the Hunter's decision and shoved past him with an angry snort, stomping back up to his claimed room on the second floor and slamming the door behind him. "Was that too cruel?" he asked, his voice softening as he looked at Ellis.

"No, I don't think so. He's blinded by anger and hurt right now. Hopefully he'll come around in a couple days." the blue eyed human stepped up beside Alec and offered him a soft smile that didn't quite reach his eyes and wrapped one arm around the Hunter's feeling the power that was hidden just beneath the battle scarred skin. "I just hope that he doesn't take off on his own as well." Alec grinned sadly, rubbing the pad of a thumb across Ellis's cheek as a single tear fell. In the short two months that the pair of strange humans had been traveling with their group, a tight bond had been forged. Both seemed reluctant to share that bond but they had fit in well and added on more strength and ferocity to all of them. With Spirit gone and Wolfen in a state of betrayal induced shock it was like two cogs had been removed from a clock, preventing it from working correctly.

"I'll keep an eye on him and keep him from doing anything stupid." he was about to turn and walk up the stairs when Ellis caught his arm, making him stop. The Hunter looked at him, raising his eyebrows in an inquiry as to what he wanted.

"Let's go out and scout the area. See what we can find in buildings a bit further out." Alec sensed that wasn't the real reason Ellis wanted to go out. The two of them hadn't gotten much time to each other even since reaching the house. With privacy at a minimum in the household, Ellis probably wanted to see if they could find any outside even with the danger of other Infected or any military milling around.

He cracked a grin and nodded. "Sounds like a plan." he walked beside Ellis as they exited the house and walked down the street in the opposite direction that Spirit had gone, making their way to a strip mall close to the coast. The broke their way into a generic clothing store first, finding it empty of Infected and humans alike. Alec picked up a pair of sunglasses and studied them for a moment before grinning widely and putting them on. "Hey Ellis." he called over to where the human was looking at some jeans and shorts. He struck a pose and tried not to break down laughing as he spoke. "How do I look?" he couldn't see anything past the tags and stickers on the lenses but he heard the laugh that Ellis let out.

"Very sexy." Alec chuckled and took them off, blinking in the change of light and slid them back into their slot. "Find anything else?" the amusement was clear in his voice, having squashed the emotions from earlier.

"Not yet." he put on a more serious face and started picking through some shirts trying to remember what size Philo and Joshua wore. He would have to guess for Wolfen however. The human was around Alec's build but Philo's height so he would have to leave some room for guesstimation. There wasn't much to choose from, the store having been ransacked long ago before it was boarded up but what the two found was enough to add to their sad amount of clothes to change through which was quickly dwindling down to none. "That looks good. Shall we go to another shop and see what we can find there?" the Hunter looked at Ellis with a smile and the human nodded. They found a large bag, throwing the clothing into it and went across the street from the strip mall to a Wok restaurant to see if they had stored away any cans of non-perishables.

Alec jerked suddenly when he felt a sudden tingle at the back of his neck. Slapping his hand down on it, he expected to see a bug when he looked at it but didn't and the tingle remained. Frowning he tried to shrug it off so Ellis didn't get concerned. Absorbing himself with pulling some plywood off a window and breaking the window open so he didn't think about the increasing tingling, he lead the way to the back of the restaurant and into the kitchen. The stale reek of rotting food clung to every surface even though all perishable foods had long since decayed into nothing but dust but the smell almost made the Hunter gag. "Are you cold or something? You've got goose bumps." Ellis inquired suddenly, looking at Alec's bare arms.

"What?" the Hunter looked at his arms and blinked, realizing that everything above his stomach was tingling now. Bumps had risen all along his arms but he didn't feel cold. In fact, his body was burning like he had been sitting in the sun too long. "N-No I'm fine." he tried to put on a convincing expression but it fell apart quickly when the tingling turned into pins and needles. The edges of his vision started to go a red color making his heart skip a couple beats. _No not here. _He gasped inwardly, realizing that his Infected mind was resurfacing. He had been inactive for too long, unable to release the excess energy that fueled the beast that he hid from his comrades. "I-I gotta go. I'll be back tonight." he said in a shaky voice, already backing out of the kitchen, his breath starting to come in sporadic gasps as the redness spread.

"Are you ok Alec?" the concern on Ellis's face was thicker in his voice and eyes. Alec knew that the human had an idea what was happening. _Why now? Things were going so damn good!_

"Yeah yeah. I'll see you later. Sorry." with that he spun on his heels and sprinted out of the store, bursting out into the sunlight with a gasp and scrambling down the street as fast as he could before he did something he would regret for the rest of his life. Gritting his teeth to hold back a screech he crouched and leaped onto a roof than onto a telephone pole, following the line of poles until he had gone a fair distance from the Wok and from the house. Stopping on top of one, he crouched there and cradled his head in his hands, folding his body in on itself gasping for air as his chest tightened. "Damn it damn it damn it." he cursed over and over, rocking slightly on his haunches. He would have to remain active if he hoped to control the monster in his head but he didn't want to remain away from Ellis and his other friends. Alec knew Philo would know what had happened when Ellis showed up back at the house alone and hopefully the Hunter could consult Philo on a better way of controlling his Infected mind. He hadn't had this problem since they were in the cabin in the mountains and had hoped that that had been the last time he would have to deal with it. It had been wishful thinking.

A shot rang out through the air and the sound of a bullet whizzing past his ear made Alec snap out of his stupor. Crouching lower on the narrow pole, he looked down at the street to see a lone soldier aiming a sniper rifle up at him. He looked thin and tired and was obviously on edge. Alec didn't know if he should attack the man for shooting at him or try and make peace. The redness at the edges of his vision had faded some so he was confident he would be able to handle the situation as long as he focused his energy on peace making. The soldier pulled the trigger again but all the gun did was click, out of ammo. "No!" the man yelped, pawing at his pockets for any more bullets, starting to tremble. Alec took the opportunity to slide down the pole and stop a few feet away from the shaking man. "No stay back." the soldier wailed, holding the gun up, ready to bludgeon the Hunter if he got too close.

"Calm down, I'm not going to attack you." now that he was closer, Alec looked the soldier over more carefully. He had bloody yellowed bandages wrapped around his forehead and around his thigh as well as a few around his left hand. He was in poor condition and obviously hungry and tired. "Where's the rest of your squad?" he quickly flicked his crimson eyes around, looking for a possible ambush and ready to react if another soldier that still had ammunition jumped out of the shadows. He couldn't see much though, his eyes stinging in the bright light of the California sun. Without a hat or a hood to hide his eyes and protect them, Alec was subject to continuous migraines from the overly bright light assaulting his sensative eyes, which were more adept to night hunting than day.

"Y-You're one of those smart ones?" the trembling man stammered, his hands tightening on his gun. Alec nodded slowly, careful to keep his hands in full view of the human before him so as not to make him more nervous. He didn't much care for the military anymore but that didn't mean he was going to leave this man out here to die. Slowly the soldier lowered the gun but kept his tight grip on it. "My squad are all dead. I was falling back to a base we set up in the center of the city but got attacked by one of you Hunters. It was wearing a military grade camo hoodie and gray camo pants so at first I thought it was one of us off duty. I was wrong. It took out my entire squad and almost killed me."

"I haven't smelled any other Hunters in the area." Alec mused, glancing down. In fact, he hadn't scented any other Infected at all. It was like the city had been cleared out of everything. At first he had thought it was strange but had brushed it off when they hadn't had any trouble after a couple days. But he didn't know what the rest of the city was like, having been sticking to the Manhattan Beach area. "How far away is the base?"

"Why should I tell you? You're probably part of that Infected army that's appeared everywhere." the soldier's voice was scornful and his nervous eyes tried to harden into a glare but he was too exhausted to muster it.

"I'm not. In fact, me and my friends have been running from it." Alec kept his voice convincing even as the tingling on the back of his neck returned. _Shit. _He didn't have much time left to sanely talk to this man. "I can take you to the base safely. But I don't have much time to linger. I have to get back to my friends." pins and needles.

"I can direct you. But how can you- whoa!" before the soldier managed to finish his sentence, Alec had already swept him onto his back and taken off to the rooftops, anxious to start moving before he lost control. "Take a left here and just keep going straight." the man finally gasped, having regained his breath and bearings. Alec did as he was told and then thought about the stranger Hunter. Could it be a scout for Gregory to test the military's defenses in the city or to possibly find Alec and his group and eliminate them or take them in? Or could it just be a lingering Infected that hadn't left the city or died off due to starvation or the military mowing them down? Either way it was obvious this Hunter wasn't friendly toward humans so Alec would have to keep an eye out.

By the time the soldier told him they were close enough for Alec to drop him off, the tingling had stopped and the redness in his vision was gone. The sun had gone past its peak and was slowly starting to sink and by the time Alec managed to wind his way back to the house it would be dark. He knew Ellis was probably going out of his mind with worry and that made his stomach swim with guilt. Before letting the soldier go his own way, Alec caught his arm and looked him directly in the eye, feeling him start to tremble as the unnatural shade of red held him like a trapped rabbit. "Keep in mind that not all Infected are evil. But, if you or any of your military buddies hurt any of my comrades, I'll rip you all to pieces." he bared his elongated teeth at the man to get his point across, narrowing his burning red eyes into a predator like glare. The soldier nodded frantically and staggered away once the Hunter released him, muttering his thanks. He looked back once but the Hunter was already gone, disappearing over the edge of a rooftop.

When he reached the house, the moon was just visible over the tops of the tall buildings around him. Alec let out a breathy sigh as the cool night air wrapped itself around him as he stood on the sidewalk outside the pale peach colored house. His shirt clung to his back, soaked in sweat from his long run but he felt good, free. If Philo didn't have any advice to give him on controlling his Infected mind other than just keep active like Caden had told him so long ago than these long binges of running and leaping would have to become routine. Letting out a soft growl from the back of his throat, he walked up the path to the front door, entering the household silently. He made his way up the stairs to where he knew Philo was probably still awake, finding him in the living room looking over some papers with a candle lit beside him. "About time you wandered your way back." the Smoker commented, not looking up from the papers. "With the way Ellis was acting when he showed up, I almost thought you had been killed." that time he did look up, his milky yellow eye glistening in the flickering candle light as he glared at the Hunter who remained in the doorway. "Don't ever do that again."

"Sorry. It was all I could think to do." Alec tried to keep his voice level but was unable to, his tone shaking some. He made his way to the table, pulling out the chair across from the Smoker and sitting down, folding his hands together on the cool surface. "There has to be a better way to control this... this monster." his claws dug into the soft flesh on the back of his hands as he tightened their grip on each other.

"Well." Philo started, leaning back in his chair and setting the papers down. "Its different for every Infected. Hunters and Tanks struggle the most because y'all are the most feral out of all the different types. You've already tried will power and that worked for a while but once you became inactive your control weakened. The chain of head injuries you suffered didn't help either." unconsciously Alec touched his head where he had been repeatedly cracked with beams or hit with rocks in a fall or building collapse. Or when he had had to set off a grenade too close for comfort. "That probably broke a lot of your control."

"No kidding. All these problems didn't start until that assault on the mansion back in Colorado." he murmured, shaking his head with a sigh.

"I still can't believe you did somethin that stupid." Philo hissed, his upper lip twitching in an agitated snarl but he cleared his expression of the emotion and blinked at the Hunter across from him. "It seems that down time is your enemy. The less active you are the more problems you have with control." he leaned forward, his voice intense. "Alec you can't let this get you. We've already lost one of our group. Wolfen _and_ Joshua still won't talk to me or Ellis. If you have ta run off too 'cause you become too dangerous to be around us, than we'll end up all scattering and be picked off one by one on our own."

"I know, but it's not like I can run off like this every day just to relieve some excess energy for the sake of keeping control. There _has _to be another way." he snorted and scratched at his jaw. "Its not like there's any medications or something I can take. Though that would be a lot better than running around aimlessly every day." he paused and thought for a minute before sighing. "I mean, I _could_ go back to trying just sheer will power but I don't know how well that will work now." all the head injuries he had suffered in such quick succession had done more damage to him than the Hunter cared to let on to his comrades. He had scary moments where he couldn't remember his own brother's name and had times when he was confused by something that was so simple to everyone else. He hid these moments as much as he could but knew the damage had long since been done and because he hadn't had the chance to relax and heal it was worse than it should have been.

"That's too dangerous for yourself and everyone around you. I think ya should just keep active. Go out for a couple hours a day, scout the area and see what you can find as far as food and clothin goes. What Ellis brought back today will last us a couple days at most but we'll have to venture out for food again soon enough. Why not just do that yourself?" Alec couldn't say he liked the idea of being the pack mule for supplies but he didn't openly complain. There weren't many more options for him to choose from.

"Fine." he sighed, standing up. _Well that was a waste of time._ The only thing Philo had done was tell him what he already knew but he appreciated the effort at least. "See you tomorrow." he waved over his shoulder as he trotted down the stairs to the bedroom that he shared with Ellis ready to change into some fresh clothes and sleep. As soon as he entered the dark room and closed the door behind him, he found himself pressed up against the wooden object, another mouth clamped down on his own. He let out a soft purr and wrapped his arms around Ellis's waist, leaning into him and deepening the passionate kiss. "Sorry I worried you." he whispered, pressing his forehead to Ellis's when they pulled away.

"Don't ever scare me like that again." the human breathed, pressing his face into the Hunter's neck and letting out a sigh. The rush of hot breath on Alec's heated sticky skin made the Hunter shiver, a slightly aroused growl ripping from deep in his chest. He felt hands traveling up his back, slipping under his shirt and brushing over scars and muscle alike in a soft caress. Purring, Alec pushed off the door and slowly backed Ellis toward the large bed situated in the middle of the room, sitting the human down on it and capturing his lips again, leaning against him and pressing their groins together. He could feel Ellis's hardness against his own and smirked pressing harder and erecting a moan from the man below him. "A-Alec, the others..." Ellis gasped, placing his hands on the Hunter's shoulders to try and push him back.

"Philo's upstairs absorbed in some papers." he licked along the human's jaw, nipping behind his ear. "Josh is downstairs." another nip. "And Wolfen is more or less passed out." he sucked on the others neck, allowing his long teeth to brush the heated skin there, getting another moan. "We'll go unnoticed." he blew on the wet spot, making Ellis shiver. While he was doing that, he slid his hands under Ellis's shirt, brushing his claws over the now sensative skin there, raising trails of bumps behind and getting a hard shiver from the human. Slowly, tortuously, he slid Ellis's shirt up over his head, licking his collar bone lightly, getting an impatient mewl in response. Alec smirked and pressed their crotches together harder, letting out a moan of his own at the increased pressure. He felt his shirt being pulled up and leaned back so it could be slipped over his head, the cool air of the room assaulting his heated skin and making him hiss and let out a small gasp at the feeling, bumps springing up all over his body.

Ellis leaned up, kissing behind Alec's jaw and nibbling lightly while the Hunter played with the button of the human's jeans a Cheshire grin plastered across his face. Sliding his hand up, Alec ran one claw over one of Ellis's nipples, getting a gasp in response as he pinched it and rubbed it with the pad of his thumb. Alec continued these ministrations, slowly pushing Ellis back until he was laying down on the bed gasping and moaning below him. Alec leaned in, capturing the human's mouth again as he unbuttoned Ellis's jeans and slowly slid the zipper down, and the pulled the clothing down. Boxers were a thing of the past for all of them so Ellis was bare below the jeans. Alec played with the skin around the others hard member, sliding his claws across the sensative skin. "Stop teasing." Ellis gasped, squirming beneath the Hunter. Alec chuckled sliding one sharp claw up to the tip of Ellis's erection, grinning as the human bucked into the touch. "S-Shit!" he exclaimed as Alec slid a second claw up.

Alec repeated this action a couple times, making Ellis pant and gasp and moan below him before finally taking his own pants off, relieving his own hardness of unneeded pressure. While nibbling on Ellis's jaw, he slowly slid one hand down, playing with the skin around the human's entrance before sliding one clawed finger inside. Ellis gasped at the intrusion, relaxing with a moan. Alec didn't let him relax for long though, adding in a second finger and then a third right after, making the human tense, squeezing his eyes shut with a mewl as the Hunter slid his fingers in and out, scissoring, claws tickling the sensative walls around them. When he was satisfied, Alec removed his fingers, capturing Ellis's mouth again as he slid his erection in, muffling the loud moan that tore from the others throat at the intrusion. Ellis wrapped his legs around the Hunter's waist, pulling him as close as he could and relaxing with a sigh, nodding to the other.

The Hunter set a steady rhythm, increasing his speed and ferocity with time, both of their moans increasing in volume as they got closer and closer to their climax. Alec wrapped one hand around Ellis's thigh, pushing closer and moving faster as he felt the others walls start to tighten around him. With a cry that was quickly muffled by a kiss, Ellis came on their chests and stomachs, bucking into Alec's hips and fisting his hands into the sheets below him. The Hunter wasn't far behind him, thrusting into the human once more and burying himself completely and growling in pure pleasure as he finally released his load. Slowly pulling out, the Hunter pushed Ellis up to the pillow, crawling up after him and pulling the still clean comforter over them both. Softly kissing Ellis on the forehead as the other pressed himself closer, Alec relaxed, feeling lethargy sweep through him. "I love you." he whispered, pressing his nose into Ellis's curly brown hair, hearing him murmur back. And slowly his blazing red eyes slipped closed.

_**Uh... *blush* yeah. Well, a lot of y'all were saying you wanted more Alec and Ellis time so... here you go. Not what I was planning but hey, if the boot fits heh heh. Hope y'all enjoyed and leave a review! The future of the story kinda depends on it.**_


	6. Unbreakable

Purge

_**This song was suggested by SoulBreak along with a bunch of others that I might use. Thanks!**_

Chapter 6- Unbreakable; _Fireflight_

_'Sometimes its hard to just keep going, but faith is moving without knowing. Can I trust what I can't see? To reach my destiny, I want to take control but I know better.'_

"_To be alone is to be different, to be different is to be alone."- Suzanne Gordon_

_This is a perfect time to have said yes to that eye surgery a couple years ago._ Spirit groaned to herself, squinting in the half light of the warehouse she had fled into when she had gotten too close for comfort to a Witch. _I can't see worth shit in full light... I may as well just find a corner and hide out. _She had been on her own for about two weeks now, having wound her way slowly to the north side of LA. So far she was doing alright, having only had a couple incidents where she had to pull something crafty out and cause a large explosion or something of those likes to get away. She had laid waste to a building where some soldiers had camped out five days ago, sneaking in during the night to steal ammunition, food, and explosives than setting off a few C4's in the middle of their sleeping quarters. The building had burned to the ground and no one had gotten out that she had noticed. She wasn't heartless, and had no real hatred toward the military. But she knew that in the back of her mind, she did it to protect the friends she had left behind from any possible danger.

She had also had a rather nasty run in with Alec. He had gone against what she said and had tracked her down a couple days ago. Luckily he came alone so she hadn't had to worry about being overpowered. He had tried his best to convince her to return to the house, even compromised by saying they had found an equally as good home closer to the middle of the city that they could go to. When that hadn't worked, he had tried force and despite how much Spirit liked the guy, she had pulled out a pocket knife and jammed it into the persistent Hunter's arm when he had wrapped it around her stomach to carry her off. He had backed off quickly, looking shocked that she had used that sort of force but a look of understanding had crossed into his eyes. "I see, you're hurting too much to even think about going back. Would it be that painful? Think of what you've done to Wolfen. He still won't talk to anyone." Spirit had said nothing, she just wiped her knife off and held it firmly in her hand at her side. They stared at each other for a long time before Alec lowered his head with a sigh. "Alright, be that cold. But you're welcome back at any time."

"I'm sorry." was all she had said. Alec had remained in his place for a long time, his arm dripping blood onto the floor before nodding and taking off with a frustrated screech.

Letting out an annoyed noise and ruffling her hands through her hair, she shook away the memory quickly and crept toward a patch of sunlight leaking through a hole in the roof. _Now's not the time to be thinking about that. _A flash of red caught her attention from the corner of her vision. Turning she saw an old safe room door, practically falling off its hinges. Maybe there was something worth looting in there. Cautiously making her way toward it, she peered in, realizing that it was darker in the room than in the actual warehouse area. Reluctantly pulling out her flashlight, she flicked it on and swept it around the room before turning it off and moving inside. She turned it on again when her shins me a table, making her stop with a huff at the sudden obstacle. She staggered back a couple steps when she saw that her hand had landed too close to the skeletal hand of a long since rotted away corpse with a gun laying across its exposed collar bone. Wrinkling her nose at the sight, she side stepped the chair the skeleton was in and gave the room a thorough inspection.

There was the usual scribbles on the wall, boasting about zombie kills, pleas for mercy and salvation that wouldn't come, Bible passages and notes to loved ones. Normally she didn't pay attention to them, but one in particular, an especially long one, caught her eye. Moving forward so she could make out the words, she slowly read through the words written on the wall in red strokes. _"For it is written in the stars that when the world ends and the wicked dance among the flames, that only those with the faith, loyalty, and ability to see past the deception of others; those who can put aside their guilt and their shame; those who can forget their past; will rise out of the ashes of our once great cities and take control and purge the rest. It is only those who will lead us into a new era or peace and prosperity. And only those with the knowledge of life and death, with the skill to see what is unseen and feel what is unfelt will be the true leaders of the rubble of the former generations. And when those people have passed in peace or in war, the human race will crumble into dust once again." _

Her entire body felt cold when she finished scanning through the red words, her hands shaking, making the beam of her flashlight dance over the wall in jerky movements. She felt like she had just read an omen instead of something a dying survivor had written with their own blood. "Oh who am I kidding." she snarled to herself quietly. "This guy was probably insane." but as much as she tried to convince herself of that, the words stuck, burned behind her eyes no matter how hard she tried to blink them away. Swallowing, she shook her head and swept the beam of her flashlight around the room once more, nearly jumping out of her skin and letting out a loud yelp when the light illuminated the face of a Hunter standing no more than four feet away from her. Its expression wasn't particularly threatening but its stance was, half-crouched with its fingers curled at its sides.

Sticking one hand in her pocket, wrapping it around her pocket knife, she reached behind her and pulled out a pistol she had picked up, aiming it at the beast. She couldn't help but feel she was about to shoot Alec but knew that it wasn't him. If he was dumb enough to track her down again he wouldn't have snuck up on her like that. This Hunter was different, looking thin and worn out but still determined to survive. She couldn't tell offhand if this beast was intelligent or feral or just in a starvation induced stupor. Checking quickly to make sure the safety was off on her pistol, she started edging toward the door, noticing that the Hunter had started sniffing at her. Whether it was smelling to see what kind of fresh meat it was gonna get or smelling the food in her back pack, Spirit couldn't tell but she wasn't going to wait around to find out. Once she was out the door, she put her pistol away, pulled out her pocket knife, turned and ran.

The Hunter didn't chase her as far as she could tell as she burst out of the warehouse, knocking over a Common in the process, and sprinted in her jolting gait down the alley and into the street. She didn't stop running until her right knee started to give way too often like it did when she had run too long and hard on the still-recently-recovered leg. Slowing to an uneasy walk, she scanned the buildings on either side of the street, looking for somewhere to duck into to stay for the night. With an extreme amount of reluctance, she had to settle for a bridal shop, cringing in distaste at the amount of frilly stuff and pink that assaulted her poor vision as soon as she broke the door open. _I must be insane to think this is the best place to stay for the night._ She growled to herself, stalking to the back of the store and into the back storage. The further she was away from the now unusable front door the better.

Sliding down to the floor with her back against the cool back wall of the room, Spirit closed her eyes and thought hard. If, and it was a pretty big _if_, those words she had read on the wall had any meaning to her or the remaining five back in Manhattan Beach, than she would have to get a message to them. Grimacing at the thought, she decided that she would wait and see. If Gregory's army proved to be as much of a threat as everyone made it out to be, than maybe it did. If it was just a couple untrained, undisciplined squads of various Infected who couldn't get along with _themselves_ let alone each other, than there wasn't much to worry about. A couple clips of M-16 ammo and the deal was done. An aching feeling in her gut told Spirit that that defiantly wasn't the case. The Infected army was a threat to worry about alright, more of a threat than the human army.

"In fact..." she mused out loud before silencing herself. If there was a way to ally the human army with the Infected who refused Gregory's command and the survivors that were still scattered here and there than the human race might have a better chance. She had stolen some maps and papers giving orders to the commanding officer at the building she had ransacked; and now felt bad for doing so; that would tell her where other squads were positioned around the city. Whether any of them still stood was another question entirely. Letting out a breezy sigh she dug in her bag searching for anything to snack on until she moved out in the morning. She was down to a couple granola bars and a bottle of water. "Time to hunt for more food I suppose." the sun had been starting to go down when she had entered the shop but she didn't want to risk leaving her bag behind and having to beat a hasty retreat and leave it behind.

As soon as she unwrapped one of the granola bars she realized she had an audience. Blinking and glancing up, she noticed that the same Hunter from the warehouse was staring at her, crouched low to the ground, from the doorway. "You again? Beat it before I put a bullet in your skull." she reached for her pistol but stopped when the Hunter flattened itself to the ground with a whimper. She could see every couture on its face, its cheeks sunken in and though she couldn't see its eyes behind the green camo hoodie it wore she knew enough about starving people to know its eyes were the same. Its hands were bony and thin and its entire frame shook with the effort of keeping itself from falling over and passing out. Feeling a stab of pity, she put both hands in her lap, noticing its head follow the movements of the granola bar. "You're starving huh? Well come here. I don't have much but I can give you something." she beckoned it forward, careful to keep her movements slow so the jumpy beast didn't overreact.

Slowly, at a snail's pace, it crept forward, stopping every few paces to examine her. Spirit didn't move, keeping absolutely still until it was with in arm's reach and refused to come any closer. Suppressing a sigh, she broke off half of the granola bar and held it out to the Hunter, keeping her palm up and her fingers flat feeling like she was offering food to a starving bear instead of something that was human once upon a time. With clumsy clawed fingers, the Hunter picked up the morsel, wolfing it down quickly, showing just how hungry it was. It stared plaintively in the direction of the other half of the granola bar, whimpering. "Nuh huh, I gotta eat too. I only have one of these left." she look at it with a scrutinizing expression, tilting her head some. "Can you even understand what I'm saying?"

It looked up at her and finally she could see all its face._ He _was obviously male with what was once an angular face and a fine nose and jaw, the face of an actor. His hair was filthy but looked like at one time it was close to a platinum blonde and of course, he held the blazing crimson eyes characteristic to Hunters. Slowly, as though unsure of the movement's meaning, it nodded. "So... you're intelligent enough to understand but not speak right?" another slow, jerky nod. "Hm.. that's troublesome." she took a slow bite out of the remaining half of the granola bar, chewing the sticky material slowly. "I hope you don't plan on sticking around. I move alone." the word 'alone' struck at her hard and guilt surged through her for a few moments before she viciously shoved it back down into the icy shell she had formed her heart into. _Then again... this guy could prove useful for grunt work and reaching places I can't or won't go. _As she mused to herself, she didn't notice the Hunter was creeping forward, his eyes on the remains of her food until he had latched his teeth onto the wrapper. "Hey!" she jerked it away, leaving a scrap of the plastic clenched between his teeth. "No, this is mine." but he reached for it anyway with a whine, leaning forward on his haunches. "Back off buddy you're not getting this food." she stretched her arm as far away as she could get it but the Hunter leaned forward anyway, persistent. He lost his balance eventually and wound up landing in Spirit's lap, arm still outstretched for the granola bar.

"Man, what a pain." she groaned, trying to roll the Hunter off her. He was rather reluctant to move and settled for latching his claws into her back when she pushed too hard and almost got him off her. "You're like a damn dog. Fine here." she pulled the remaining bit of the bar out of the plastic and handed to him with a roll of her eyes. He let out a low purr, his stomach probably fuller than it had been in ages and relaxed, breath quickly deepening. "Hey now don't you fall asleep like that." she protested, already knowing it was too late, that he was already asleep. _Pain in the ass._ She sighed inwardly, leaning her head back against the wall, knowing better than to try and move him now that he was asleep. _Hopefully he'll be gone by morning and I can carry on my merry way without extra baggage. _

Very much like a lost puppy however, the Hunter remained when she blinked awake in the morning. He was sitting up, hood fallen onto his shoulders but eyes bright. And he was about three inches away from her face. Letting out a scream, Spirit shoved him back, making him roll onto his back with a yelp, and scrambled away. It took her a few moments to wake up and become coherent in thought enough to realize where she was and who the Hunter was, or rather why he was there and when she did she scowled at him darkly as he righted himself into a crouch. _Of course I would get saddled with one of the most stubborn and persistent of all Infected. How fitting. _She growled to herself, thinking of her own bullheaded tenancies with a slight twitch. _Not only that, but one with the intelligence and personality of a dog. Perfect. _It was about now when she wished she had talked more with Alec and asked him how to, without violence, ward off a Hunter that wasn't so much intent on attacking as it was just being curious. But she hadn't so she was completely lost on how to get this camo clad pest to scram without shooting at him.

Suddenly the Hunter was pulling on her pant leg, letting out urgent grunts, his bright eyes flicking from her to the door. "What what?" she drawled, leaning forward. He pulled more urgently, letting out a low screech and the bounding away a few feet before scrambling back. She knew enough about animal behavior to know that this animal-like being wanted her to follow. So throwing caution to the wind, she grabbed her bag and guns with a sigh and stood up. The Hunter bounded away, looking back every so often to make sure Spirit was following as he lead her out of the store and down the street back in the direction she had come the night before. It hadn't occurred to her until now, but she didn't know what side this Hunter was on. Was he just a wandering Infected or part of Gregory's army. That thought made her stop dead in her tracks, hand curling around the knife in her pocket as she scowled. _And I say I only __**act**__ thick. Stupid! _She wanted to turn around and run the opposite direction but she knew that now that the Hunter was interested in her presence, he would follow her.

The Hunter stopped when he noticed the lack of footsteps behind him and turned around, bounding back and looking up at the scowling human with a confused expression. "How do I know I can trust you?" she snapped with sudden ferocity, making the crouching Infected shrink back. He suddenly seemed unsure, his eyes darkening for a few moments before brightening again and he flashed her a toothy grin.

"Alec!" he chirped suddenly. Spirit's body went cold.

"What?" she couldn't believe it. The damned Infected had found another Hunter to keep an eye on her. No doubt got him cornered, threatened him with his more superior strength and speed then taught him one or two words to appease Spirit's trust and sent him on his merry way with an article of something she left behind to track her with. "_Alec_ sent you after me?" the Hunter before her nodded, seeming proud of himself for saying the one simple word, still grinning widely. She suddenly felt the urge to brutally murder something and the Hunter was the only other being present. But she wouldn't hurt him, yet. He obviously didn't know why she was on her own, probably having only been told that he needed to find her or else. _Traitor._ Was the mutinous thought that shot through her head as she twitched in an effort to hide her irritation toward Alec. No doubt the jerk's ears were feeling mighty hot at the moment as she mentally stabbed a small voodoo doll of him viciously with a serrated knife.

Finally she let out a deep sigh, clenching her teeth together in a half grimace half snarl, she stared coldly down at the Hunter. "I'm stuck with you now aren't I?" she asked, deflating some in defeat, already knowing the answer before the Hunter gave her an eager nod. _Personality and persistence of a dog, innocence of a child. Maybe he doesn't remember anything from his human days. _She had seen and heard of many cases of that among Intelligent Infected who couldn't remember their past, couldn't even remember their own names. "Well I'm not going that way." she continued, pointing in the direction that he had been leading her. "I'm going this way." she then motioned over her shoulder down the street and to the north. A sudden thought occurred to her.

Slinging her bag off her back, she crouched down, rummaging through it until she found the map she had stolen. Opening it she saw various red dots and 'x's scattered all over LA and the surrounding area. There was one at the very north end of the city but she couldn't really tell what street it was on or how to get there before night. "Hey, do you by any chance know how to get here?" she pointed at the red dot at the north of the city, glancing at the Hunter as he peered over her shoulder. He frowned deeply, obviously thinking hard before shaking his head. _Shouldn't have expected him to. Oh well, maybe he'll be useful in other ways._ Like finding food, she gripped her stomach as it let out a low gurgle, protesting at its empty state. _But with how starving he looks, he'll probably end up eating it all before he brings it back to me. Better to leave that to something that I'll do myself._ She didn't like that she was saddled with a companion now; _again_ she thought; but knew she didn't have much choice in the matter.

Folding the map up and placing it back in her bag, she stood up and slung the article over her back. _Time to wing it I suppose. I hope my sense of direction has improved. I don't have Wolfen here to correct me if I end up running us in circles. _Her heart jolted as she thought of her friend and the betrayed, furious almost, expression he had looked at her with when she had walked out of the house. Mentally shaking herself, she pushed those thoughts to the back of her mind to be dealt with later and started walking, aware of the presence of her new annoyance and companion at her side.

_**Yeah I skipped forward a couple weeks for this chapter. I'll backtrack next time for Alec's chapter to show what he did with this new Hunter to get him to go after Spirit. Hope y'all enjoyed and leave a review! I need 'em to breathe heh heh.**_


	7. False Pretense

Purge

_**Shit guys, sorry its been so long since an update. Band camp started up at the beginning of this month and I spent all of July dealing with... family problems. Hope I haven't lost my touch heh heh.**_

Chapter 7- False Pretense; _The Red Jumpsuit Apparatus_

_'I can't seem to understand how you turned out to be so cold. You tried but were caught red handed, are you happy with your role?'_

"_Many of us crucify ourselves between two thieves- regret for the past and fear for the future."- Fulton Oursler_

"Holy shit what happened to you?" was the first thing out of Joshua's mouth when he met Alec on the stairs. The Hunter had just returned from scouting the area; which loosely translated into searching for Spirit under the guise of looking for food; and still had dried rivulets of blood on his arm.

"Where is everyone?" Alec replied quietly, avoiding the question as much as he could.

"Uh, Ellis and Philo are upstairs and Wolfen is still in his room as far as I know. Why? You have news?"

"In a sense. Go get the hermit, he needs to hear this too." Joshua nodded, moving past his brother down the stairs to Wolfen's room while Alec made his way to the third floor living room. He said nothing, shrugging off the concerned looks he got from Ellis and Philo when they laid their eyes on the gash in his arm and dried blood. As soon as Joshua pushed Wolfen into the room, Alec spoke. "Well, I found her. And she showed how eager she was to come back by driving a knife into my arm."

Their eyes collectively widened and Philo was the first to speak. "Unprovoked?"

"No. I tried talking to her, making her see sense. I even tried to guilt her but it didn't work. So, I grabbed her and she stabbed me." he sighed, running a hand through his hair and swallowing a growl. A contemptuous snort came from Wolfen, getting him a look from the others in the room.

"I'm surprised she didn't put a bullet between your eyes." he muttered, crossing his arms and looking away. No one said anything or moved for a long time until Wolfen stood up and stomped out of the room and down the stairs. The other four exchanged a look and sighed almost in unison. Alec stood up, moving into the kitchen where they stored some of their medical supplies. He cleaned the wound as much as he could and slapped a large band aid on it, not bothering with antiseptic. It was better used for humans than Infected anyway.

"So what are we gonna do?" Joshua asked once Alec had sat down beside Ellis with a huff. "Just let her wander alone?" his eyes shone with an emotion that bordered on horrified but he tried hard to make sure it didn't show on his face.

"Not much else we _can _do. Obviously she's gonna put up a hell of a fight if anyone tries to force her." Philo sighed, ruffling his long blonde hair with an irritated look on his face. "Let's just leave her to her own devices. And go on with our own lives." he was as tired of the wild goose chase as Alec was and it was time they came to terms with the fact that she wasn't coming back. It had been two weeks and when Alec had seen her she looked like she was faring better than anyone had thought she would. Now was the time to focus on much more pressing matters, like the human army that was scattered around the city and the soon-to-be approaching Infected army. There was no telling when they would appear but it couldn't be too much longer.

They sat in a thick silence until Joshua stood up and walked down the hall, moving onto a small balcony that sat across from the bathroom. Alec could see him leaning on the railing with his head between his hands, but his breathing was even. "We still need to find more food." Ellis suddenly piped up, drawing the Hunter's attention. "Feel like going out again?" he raised an eyebrow at Alec and he nodded, standing up. On a whim, he sprinted down stairs into the room Spirit had occupied and grabbed a ratty tee that she hadn't bothered to bring with her. Ellis gave him an inquiring look when he saw Alec tuck it between his back and his pants like it was a rag from an auto shop. "You have an idea?"

"Yeah. And if it works hopefully the news will pull Wolfen out of his funk. If he knows she's sort of safe he might be willing to put some effort into helping us find supplies. The unwillingness he's displaying is pissing me off." they moved silently from that point on, their arms barely brushing. With each passing day they had to pan out further in search of food and other supplies. If the distance became too much they would have to move locations so travel distances were cut down. Alec went out every day faithfully, determined to keep his Infected mind pushed down and now and then he would take one of his companions with him. Most days it was Ellis or Philo but sometimes he dragged Joshua out of the house, teasing him that if all he did was laze around and eat he was going to get fat. Of course, even if they did do just that, the meager amounts of food they consumed daily was just enough to keep them from getting malnourished. It was a hard life but it could very easily be worse.

They had just come across a small dollar store that looked mostly in tact when a scent caught Alec's attention. Frowning, he told Ellis to stay close as he tracked it around the back of the building. One eyebrow went up when he saw a scrawny Hunter crouched there, sniffing in trashcans that had long since been picked through. When it noticed their presence, it jerked its head up and hissed, sucking air into its lungs to try and seem larger. But it was nothing but skin and bones so the effort was wasted. Alec growled and stalked forward, backing the Hunter into a corner. He noticed that it was wearing a green camo hoodie and gray camo pants, thinking back to what the soldier he had rescued had told him about a Hunter that had taken out his squad. Narrowing his blazing red eyes, Alec crouched lower until his face was mere inches from the other Hunter's quivering form. _"It would be smart not to move." _he snarled in the Infected tongue, drawing air into his own lungs to make his already tall muscular frame seem larger.

_"Food. Hunt. Food, food." _it almost chanted back in a shaky hiss. Its eyes were huge with fear but it didn't move.

"We'll get you some food but you have to do a favor for us in return." Alec snapped in the human tongue, narrowing his eyes further. The scrawny creature before him nodded frantically, whimpering. "A friend of ours is missing and we don't like her being alone. If we get you something to eat, you need to go find her and protect her." he dared the other Hunter to argue, growling from deep in his chest. He was aware of Ellis's presence a few feet behind him but didn't move to let the starving Hunter see him. No doubt that would throw it into hunting mode and that wouldn't be good. "Stay right there." he snarled, straightening up and backing up slowly. Ellis backed up with him, careful to keep himself even with Alec so he wouldn't be seen. They quickly darted into the store, grabbing as much as they could fit into the bag they carried while Alec grabbed a can of... something, breaking it open with a hammer and carried it outside. The other Hunter still crouched there, frozen like someone had hit a mental pause button. When it smelled the food it practically tackled Alec for it, gulping down what was in the can greedily before looking around for more. "If you want more, you need to find our friend." he pulled the shirt out from behind him and waved it in front of the other Hunter. "Get that scent memorized and then I have something you need to learn."

The Hunter grabbed the shirt, turning it over, smelling it and even licking it before looking at Alec with wide eyes, still terrified of the stronger being that stood before it. "Now, she won't trust you at first so you need to learn how to say my name. That way she'll have less incentive to kill you." he wasn't quite sure how much the pitiful being before him was understanding but didn't care. "Now repeat after me in a human voice. Alec." it tried, only getting out a growl. Alec frowned, motioning for it to try again. This continued for several minutes before it finally managed to croak out the others name. "Good. Now scram." he waved the other Hunter away, making it scramble back and out the other end of the alley, no doubt looking for the scent it had been ordered to follow.

"You think it'll work?" Ellis asked, walking up behind Alec, wrapping an arm around the Hunter's shoulders.

"God I hope so. I scared him pretty good so chances are he'll obey." he shrugged, turning to Ellis with a grin. "Let's head back. Its getting late." they meandered their way back to the house slowly, arriving just as the sun dipped below the buildings around them. "Bring this upstairs. I'm gonna go talk to Wolfen." Ellis nodded, leaning over to give Alec a light kiss as he took the bag from the Hunter before jogging up the stairs. Alec walked over to the door behind which Wolfen was and knocked. "Hey man, open up."

"No." came the muffled reply.

"Either you open the door willingly or I'm forcing my way in. Which would you prefer?" he kept his tone light but allowed it to rumble with a soft growl letting the other know he was being serious. He heard a sigh and the door was opened a few seconds later, allowing Alec access to the room.

"What do you want?"

"Well I thought that you would like to know that we found an ally today. I sent him after Spirit to hopefully keep her safe even though she seemed to be doing pretty damn fine on her own." he noticed interest spark in Wolfen's eyes and offered up a soft smile. "She's going to be just fine. You knew her better than any of us and you know she's capable of handling herself. I know you feel betrayed but keeping yourself locked up when there's more important things to worry about isn't helping anyone." he snickered, earning a strange look from the person across from him. "Now come upstairs and socialize before I have Philo come bind and gag you to drag you up there."

"That's not funny!" he heard the Smoker yell from the living room a floor above them. The house was silent so Alec knew that everyone was listening to what they could hear. Alec chuckled and backed out of the doorway, looking at the other expectantly. Wolfen sighed and brushed past Alec, slowly walking up the stairs. He stopped and turned to look at the Hunter, his eyes and expression both unsure.

"Thanks."

"No problem. Now get your butt up there." a small grin twitched its way onto Wolfen's face and he turned, walking up the stairs a bit faster. Alec sighed and shook his head, moving to the room he and Ellis shared to change out of his sweaty bloody clothes. When he had slipped on a pair of khaki colored three-quarter cargo pants and a body tight dark blue tee he made his way to the foot of the stairs, crouching and leaping up to the balcony that over looked the steps, hauling himself over the railing and walking calmly into the living room to find his four companions talking lightly. Things seemed to be looking up a bit. Alec knew, just as everyone knew, that it wouldn't last very long and to enjoy it while it lasted.

Alec soon found himself wrestling with Joshua, a rare occurrence and one that the Hunter had to be careful with because of his claws but brothers would be brothers. Alec finally managed to flip his shorter and lighter, but certainly not any less fierce, brother onto his stomach and sat on his back, using his greater stature and weight to pin him to the carpeted floor. "Admit it Josh, even when we were kids you could never win." Alec cackled, as Joshua squirmed in vain to get out from under his younger brother.

"Get off me you great lump I can't breathe." he grunted, clawing at the carpet in hopes of pulling himself forward. Alec rolled off him with a laugh, soon finding himself pinned by his black haired blue eye brother who laughed triumphantly while perching on Alec's stomach. "Who's winning now baby brother?" he snickered, getting a growl from the Hunter below him. The other four laughed at his expense as he shoved Joshua off him and scooted against the black leather couch in front of where Ellis sat cross legged.

"I let you do that." he muttered grudgingly, soaking up the light hearted atmosphere and enjoying it while it lasted.

"Oh sure oh great one. Even as a Hunter you still get careless. Max would be disappointed."

"Yeah right, he only taught me how to fight so he wouldn't get bored as quickly whenever he decided to kick my ass up one side and down the other. Literally." Alec sniped back, grinning maliciously. "And if I remember correctly, Rache could always beat your ass. In fighting and everything else." he couldn't say he had a happy childhood but it felt good to be bickering with his year-older brother for the first time in forever.

Joshua whined very much like a small child and protested loudly, "I let her 'cause she was so much younger!" Alec only shook his head with a laugh along side the three seated behind him. This was a rare occurrence but a welcome one nonetheless. It brought back happy times for all of them, childhood memories that had been buried for a long time because of the Infection. At least for tonight, everything was sort of normal. Joshua's face suddenly became thoughtful and he looked at Alec with a strange expression. "Hey I just realized something. Didn't you used to have gauges in your ears?"

Alec sighed and rubbed his neck in thought. "Yeah. Our asshole father made me remove 'em before I went out with Max and Pat on my birthday the night everything went to hell. I never bothered with them again, not much point." his father had said that now that he was twenty-one he didn't need juvenile things like piercings. The holes had long since disappeared and Alec hadn't really thought about it until Joshua brought it up. Of course, that brought a lot of curiosity from the others.

"You had gauges?" Philo asked, looking like he was trying not to laugh. Alec scowled at him, narrowing his eyes.

"Yeah what of it. At least I don't have a stripper tattooed on my ass." he smirked when Philo's pale face went red. Alec had had the misfortune of walking in on Philo to ask him a question when he had just dropped his pants to get changed. Philo hadn't noticed he was there but the Hunter had beat a hasty retreat while trying not to throw up. Ever since he had been trying to delete the disturbing image from his mind but now he realized that it was a wonderful piece of black mail. Between Philo's expression and what Alec had said there was a combined roar of laughing and stifled gags while the Smoker tried not to look as mortified as he actually was.

"How drunk were you when you got that?" Wolfen gasped while roaring with laughter, clutching his sides. Philo muttered something under his breath that sounded to Alec like 'very' but he didn't say anything, sparing the Smoke further humiliation. Warm feelings saturated the air around them and Alec allowed himself to sink into the cloud of laughter that floated around the room as their bickering continued into the early hours of the morning. Eventually everyone aside from Alec retreated to their respective rooms to get a few hours of rest before the next day of hardship started. Alec remained in the living room, staring up at the moon for what felt like an eternity, sinking into his own thoughts and hearing the faint growl from his Infected mind that had become ever present. _Is there hope or did that leave us along with our humanity? _He thought, his mind wandering to Philo, his long-dead brothers who's last sight in life had been their own sibling ripping out their throats or snapping their necks. He thought of all the Infected beings he had ever met, a deep feeling of pity and hopelessness flooding him even as he settled down beside Ellis and allowed his eyes to slip closed.

_**This one's sort of a filler, explaining a couple things that were seen in the previous chapter and showing a more light hearted side of the remaining group. The next one is gonna be with Spirit and what she's doing. Reviews are used for the future of this story and work as good incentive for me to actually write! Oh, and I'm gonna be putting links for some awesome fanart up on my profile here soon so go check it out! Enjoy!**_


	8. Hide and Seek

Purge

Chapter 8- Hide and Seek; _Imogen Heap_

_'Oily marks appear on walls where pleasure moments hung before the takeover, the seeping insensitivity of this still life.'_

"_The hardest thing in life is knowing which bridges to cross and which to burn."- David Russell_

"Oh for the love of shit leave the poor thing alone!" Spirit snarled, stalking up to her Hunter companion. He was busy harassing a Common who looked like it wanted nothing more than to be left alone. Reaching forward, she grabbed his hood, yanking him back and away from the miserable creature. "We don't have time for this dipshit. Its gonna be dark soon." she snapped, shaking him by his hood. She shot a look at the Common, receiving a tiny nod in response to the impromptu rescue and she nodded back, dragging the Hunter by his hood away from it. He scrambled into a crouch, bounding up to her side but she didn't release the hood, feeling like she was walking a dog. She continued to trek at a steady pace until the sun was almost below the horizon before ducking into a dollar store with her Hunter companion right beside her. She let go of his hood and pushed her sore legs into a trot as she looked around the store for anything to eat.

It had been three days since she had been saddled with this pain in the ass of a partner and her patience with his continuous curiosity of _everything_ was starting to seriously grate on her nerves. It made her feel like she was babysitting someone's rat-dog with the way he acted at times. Always had to go up to everything and sniff it. If it had a pulse he had to either jump on it or poke and prod it until it fought back or tried to get away or until Spirit came to the creature's rescue. Much like how she had done three times in the span of the past ten hours.

Sighing, she picked up a couple wrapped packages of granola bars and other sweet stuff and small bags of chips. It may have been junk food but it was food nonetheless. She chucked a couple bags at the Hunter, watching with detached amusement as he ripped the packages open and scarfed down the food inside. It was scary how thin he was and three days of getting half of her food hadn't made any difference. It would take a couple months of _good_ eating to get him back to a normal weight and that was more or less out of the question so he would be looking like a skeleton for a while. She wasn't much better but she still had a reasonable amount of meat on her bones. Picking up a couple more bags and packages, she looked around for a back room or a counter far away from the door. Spotting a blurry sign toward the back of the store, she picked her way to it, the Hunter right at her side. When she got closer she saw the sign read 'employees only' so she pushed it open and walked into the storage room. Making her way to the back while still being within sight of the door, she sank to the ground against the wall as per usual.

The Hunter sat down beside her, looking balefully at the food she held. She flashed him a stern look when he reached out with one clawed hand and he quickly withdrew it having learned the night before that she had no qualms with clocking him if he became too persistent. He had the bruise on his forehead to prove it. When Spirit was satisfied that he wouldn't make another grab for her food, she tossed another package at him, getting a startled look from him. She shrugged and tore into a bag of chips herself. A though occurred to her, making her pause, a Dorito half way to her her mouth. "Hey, do you remember your name?" she asked suddenly, making the Hunter look at her, seeming lost. He tilted his head and shook it, his red eyes shining with confusion. "Well if you're going to stick around we may as well come up with one for you huh?" he blinked and then nodded eagerly, reminding her once again of a young child or a dog.

Shoveling a few more Doritos in her mouth, she thought about names that would fit him but also have some meaning. She never did anything if it didn't have meaning of some sort to it. She suddenly thought of all of her geeking out over history in school, specifically her fascination with the Civil War and World War 2. The current situation, with one insane dictator trying to exterminate an entire population, it reminded her of the Holocaust. Tossing the empty bag aside, she crossed her arms and relaxed some against the wall, staring at the dark ceiling. Letting out a thoughtful noise, she thought of names of weapons and the like that she could remember, a light bulb going off in her head. With the camo he wore, it was obvious that this Hunter had something to do with the military, whether he had been a survivor in the camp or a soldier. That made her mind travel to weapons of the time and she grinned. "Panzer." she declared, getting a weird look from the Hunter. "How does that sound?" he tilted his head, shifting his weight some as he seemed to conciser it. A child like grin spread across his filthy thin face and he nodded. "Good." she stated with a nod. _Not like you had much of a choice in the matter anyway. _She thought wryly.

She passed a granola bar to Panzer, tearing into one herself as well as taking a long pull from a bottle of water. Slowly, the two of them ate what Spirit had grabbed and she allowed herself to relax even further. Closing her eyes and resting her head against the wall, she let out a slow breath, pushing as much of her stress as she could to the back of her mind. She concentrated on the warmth coming from the beast that was now curled up next to her and slowly drifted away. She was startled awake by something warm and wet running up her cheek. "Oh! Ugh! Get away from me." she snapped, shoving Panzer back. Rubbing her cheek furiously, she scowled at him, her nose wrinkling. "What the hell man?" she snapped, glaring at him. He seemed to shrink under the withering look and it made her feel sort of bad. Softening her expression some but keeping her voice biting, she spoke again. "What do you want?" he looked from her to the door and back again, whimpering softly.

Standing up quietly, Spirit crept forward, peering through the doorway. The first thing she noticed was that it was dawn, gray light flooding the store dimly. The second thing she saw was a Witch parked just in front of the door. _Great._ She spat to herself, drawing back and practically tip toeing her way back to Panzer. "There are _better _ways of waking me up." she growled, packing up her bag with the bottles of water they hadn't drank the night before and slinging it onto her back. "Can you distract her?" she looked down at Panzer's crouched form, sort of worried that he wouldn't be able to run or jump far enough in his malnourished state. There wasn't much of a choice though, she didn't have a shotgun and even if she did, it was always a gamble whether or not she would make the shot right. Before she could change her mind, Panzer shot forward, jumping on the Witch then away, moving as fast as he possibly could as she stood up.

Spirit's body when cold when instead of giving chase, the Witch turned around and stared right at her with blazing red eyes. _Fuck me..._ was her only thought as the scrawny creature spread her talons and charged. Scrambling for her M16 she didn't even get the chance to click the safety off before the Witch had her pinned to the ground. With a jerky motion, Spirit dug in one of her pockets, grasping her pocket knife and pulling it out. Just as she was about to jam it into the screeching banshee's throat, she was yanked off of Spirit and sent wailing across the room. That gave Spirit enough time to pull her M16 around again and click the safety off as Panzer backed away hissing and snarling as the Witch regained her footing. The entire world seemed to freeze when Spirit's blurry gaze locked on the Witch's face, everything suddenly became crystal clear. The sharp lines of her face, wide eyes, button nose, large mouth, blonde hair. _Aunt Candace..._ "Panzer don't!" Spirit screamed as everything started to move again and Panzer flung himself at her Infected aunt. It was too late, the Hunter's claws dug into her throat and tore it out. She convulsed and fell over, letting out a gurgling shriek. "No... No. No no _no_!" _Dead, they're all dead now. I'm alone. Alone. Alone! _Her thoughts were flying everywhere, moving too fast for her to center them and lock them away.

Pain ripped through Spirit's body and she bent over, pressing her forehead to the cold floor, screaming as loudly as her throat would allow. A breath pulled in, a scream released. This continued for a long time. Panzer looked at Spirit's hunched over form, confusion shining in his eyes, his claws bloody with her last remaining family member's blood. _What have I ever done to deserve this? I lived my life day to day, I still live my life day to day. I try not to be mean, I try not to be an evil bitch. I don't understand. Don't understand. _Her throat tightened as well as her chest, her heart hammering behind her ribs as panic, guilt, pain and fury tore through her system too fast for her to beat them away. She felt a nudge on her shoulder, screwing her eyes closed not wanting to see the blood on the Hunter's claws. Not wanting to look up and see the body. She curled in on herself tighter, her breath coming in short rapid gasps as she slowly pulled herself together.

Suddenly all emotions were gone and she felt cold inside and out. Her thoughts came to a halt and her breathing evened out. She looked up, looking anywhere but at the body and at Panzer's hands and gradually pulled herself to her feet. In a haze of false calm, she picked up her gun, secured her bag on her back, and walked out of the store, feeling numb. She knew Panzer was beside her but didn't acknowledge him even as he whined up at her. She kept the false calm firmly in place as long as she could but knew that she would be able to do so for maybe an hour before her thoughts started flying again. The silence that blanketed the streets was deafening and in silence her thoughts always wandered to places they shouldn't. So Spirit just forged her way toward the military base that was no more than a day away from where she stood now and didn't say a single word, staring straight ahead. This continued until it was almost sun down.

She didn't realize she had made a giant loop back in a direction she didn't want to go until she caught movement out of the corner of her hazy vision. It was twilight now and her cold body went colder as she recognized some of the buildings. _I just made a massive fucking circle and beyond._ She hissed to herself, ducking behind a dumpster as the distant blurry forms of the friends she had left behind moved around in the street no more than fifty yards away from where she hid. Panzer crouched beside her, looking at her confused but she gave him a 'shut up' esque look and he ducked his head. _This day just gets better and better. I can't believe this. Alright Alex, time to actually think when you're walking instead of letting your feet lead you. _She hissed to herself as she heard the voices of Alec and Philo bickering getting closer. _I know I didn't travel too too far off course. Are they scouting or moving locations? _Looking around cautiously, she searched for any possible escape route. The first thing she noticed was that the ally dead ended against the wall of a building and there were no manholes to drop into. Peering around the dumpster, she looked across the street, spotting one in an ally opposite her. _Hell._

"Hey." she whispered, nudging Panzer, keeping her voice low as she heard them draw closer. "Dart over there and get that manhole open. I can't get caught by these guys." pain ripped through her again but she shoved it away, centering herself and throwing herself into a mode she would switch into back when she was in school in marching band. _Keep your feet moving, move through the sets not to them. Focus, look, adjust, guide. _Panzer nodded and darted forward as fast as he could, skidding to a halt in the opposite ally and pausing to see if he had been noticed. No one raised the alarm but Spirit noticed his eyes tracking someone close to her hiding spot.

"I'm gonna take a look in here guys!" Joshua's voice called out. _Shit. If he finds me he'll probably start crying then that'll make me start crying then I'll feel guilty and cave. Please Josh don't notice me. _She prayed as his footsteps drew closer. She shook the thoughts away when she saw Panzer pulling the manhole open and then looked up at her expectantly. Swallowing, she steeled her nerves, moved out from behind the dumpster and kicked off the ground as hard as she could, sprinting across the street and trying to ignore the startled gasp behind her. "Spirit!" Joshua's exclamation drew the attention of the rest of the group and made them run over. Spirit threw her guns and bag down the manhole and reluctantly looked up.

"Don't let her vanish into the sewers. We'll never catch her again!" Wolfen's voice rang out even though he wasn't in view. With an aching heart she jumped down the hole, landing with a grunt and throwing her weight to the side so Panzer could jump down too without landing on her. Grabbing her bag, and guns, she took off, hearing feet land behind her. She knew that Alec and Ellis were the fastest of the group and would be the first to catch up and that Philo would probably lasso her. She couldn't run at top speed for very long so she knew she had to loose them. Splashing through the filthy water, she skidded around a corner and vanished into the darkness with Panzer just ahead of her. "No damn it!" the footsteps behind her faded away and stopped but she didn't expect to be plowed into the ground.

"Why the fuck are you doing this?" Alec snarled, his body a mass of darkness above her. Spirit spat in his face and kicked him in the stomach, dislodging him for an instant but he pinned her again. "Answer me damn it!" he screeched close to her ear. Spirit shivered, remembering just what sort of dangerous creature she was dealing with for the first time in forever. Panzer wasn't doing anything to help her, crouching trembling a couple meters away, frightened by the stronger Hunter.

"I can't explain it." she whispered. "I have a plan. I'm not going back. Now get the hell off me before I shoot you." she spat the last words out, feeling Alec's claws dig into her wrists as he growled at her. He was getting seriously pissed and she didn't know what sort of control he had over his Infected mind when he got mad.

"What's this _plan?_" he spat as his claws lightly broke the skin on Spirit's wrists.

"To find the human army and prepare them." she whispered, listening for anyone else approaching but didn't hear anything. "I suggest you keep an eye out for Gregory's army." she tried to keep the sneer out of her tone, not wanting to push the Hunter pinning her too far.

"And why can't you do that with us?" he demanded, his voice breaking into an angry screech. He was getting unstable and either Panzer needed to get him off her or she needed to find a way to throw him off before he accidentally hurt her. She didn't answer him, making a growl rumble deep in his chest, his grip tightening further. She just looked away, knowing he could see her expression, one laced with pain and regret, in the darkness even when she couldn't see anything. She could feel him trembling as he fought his Infected mind, but could practically feel his fury mounting. One of his hands detached from her wrist and she just knew that he was drawing his claws up to make a kill, his eyes shining with a feral light in the darkness. She knew Alec and knew that if he did this it would tear him apart to know that he lost control and killed one of his former teammates.

Spirit felt the muscles in his other arm tighten and his legs tensed as well and knew he was bringing his other arm down. She closed her eyes, breathing out deeply and preparing herself for the blow but it never came. Alec was ripped off of her and she heard two different screeches and the sound of a fight a couple meters away. Panzer must have thrown himself into action when he saw what was happening. Spirit took the opportunity to scramble to her feet, making sure to stay in the water so her scent wasn't as strong, and sprinted around the corner her entire form trembling. Alec was always calm and collected, having the demeanor of an Alpha wolf almost. She knew that he had been watching the results of her departure get to the others, especially Wolfen and knew that it must have made him more angry than he was willing to admit. That just made the copious amounts of guilt she felt before intensify. Stopping gradually, she dropped to her knees, panting and trying to reign in her trembling. _God I hate this. I hate that I've done this but I've made my decision. I can't back out yet. _

The pattering of hands and feet on the concrete made her freeze but she heard the familiar whine from Panzer and she relaxed. Letting out a slow breath, she listened for any more sounds of pursuit. Instead she heard voices. "I almost killed her Ellis! I- I was going to kill her." Alec was gasping, his tone pained and panicked. She heard Ellis reply but couldn't make it out, the echo from the concrete walls distorting his voice too much. Pulling herself to her feet, she moved as silently as she could, conscious of Panzer's constant presence by her side and found an open manhole. It was dark when she pulled herself out of the sewers, the streets lit only by the moon and stars. The day and its events crashed into her, slamming her with physical and emotional exhaustion. _Why does this have to happen? I mean, everything has a reason to it so what is the reason for this? To kill me with guilt or to make my friends suffer more? _

She felt Panzer nudge her shoulder and glanced up at him. She patted his shoulder and sighed. "I'm alright." she whispered in a shaking voice. _I'm doing this to help them but I can't be with them while I carry it out. They would be at too much risk, Alec and Philo especially. I have to find the military and warn them. Help them and prepare them. I just hope they listen. _She rubbed her sore wrists, looking at the small smears of blood that she had wiped off from where Alec's long claws had broken the skin. _He's getting more unstable._

Standing up, she let out a long sigh, feeling every muscle in her body protesting as she moved away from the manhole and the friends she had abandoned. _For the greater good._ She thought sarcastically, though she knew in a sense it was sort of true. If she could get the human military prepared for Gregory's army then the human race would stand a better chance instead of going in without any warning. Her former teammates would also be safer if she could tell the military about them so they would be spared if caught by a squad. She just had to reach them before the end of the next day. There likely wasn't much time left until the Infected army reached the city and she wanted to have as much of a defense up as she could get out of the military. Maybe then they would stand a fighting chance.

_**Ah yes, drama. And a bit more meat for the story line and what Spirit's true motives are. Also shows a darker side of Alec. Hope y'all enjoyed. Drop me a review, they're used to improve the story and keep it moving. Enjoy!**_


	9. Slow Me Down

Purge

_**Oh my lord I'm sorry y'all. Its been way too long since I last updated I know, but for one I got my computer taken from me for about a month 'cause I ran my mouth and then school and illness have also prevented me from updating. Hopefully I can continue to update at a more... constant speed from here on out.**_

Chapter 9- Slow Me Down; _Emmy Rossum_

_'Rushing and racing and running in circles, moving so fast, I'm forgetting my purpose. Blur of the traffic is sending me spinning, getting nowhere. My head and my heart are colliding chaotic, pace of the world I wish I could stop it, try to appear like I got it together. I'm falling apart.'_

"_Let's make the best of the situation/ Before I finally go insane./ Please don't say we'll never find a way/ And tell me all my love's in vain."- Eric Clapton_

_Kill the human! She's hurt us, make her bleed. Tear out her throat! _Alec's Infected mind screamed at him, drowning out the words that he saw Spirit whispering from her pinned position below him. He tightened his grip on her wrists, the iron smell of blood pricking at his nose and making his Infected mind howl with want for more. _Rip the flesh from her bones! _It howled, forcing a growl from Alec. Without his consent, one of his hands detached from Spirit's wrists and rose above his head, claws poised to slice into flesh.

_No! I can't do this! _He screamed to himself as his muscles tensed and his arm swung down like a pendulum. A heavy weight slammed into him and he felt his claws pierce the back of Spirit's companion, the Hunter he had sent to protect her. A screech ripped from both of their throats as they rolled across the tunnel through the filthy water. Alec heard Spirit scramble to her feet and take off in a dead sprint down an adjacent tunnel before he managed to throw the other Hunter off of him. The weaker of the two bolted after Spirit while Alec sat panting and trembling in the sewer water, looking down at his claws, which were now streaked with blood. A pair of arms wrapped around his shoulders, making him start and his trembling increased ten fold. "I-" he stammered, his breath tight in his chest and his heart hammering behind his ribs. "I almost killed her Ellis! I- I was going to kill her." he gasped out, almost hyperventilating, his calm facade crumbling before the eyes of his companions.

Ellis ran his hand through Alec's wet matted hair murmuring in his ear. "Its alright Alec. You didn't hurt her." Alec couldn't reply, his breath was too ragged and a pained wail was trying to claw its way up his throat. He pushed it down with a thick swallow as his head pounded. The darkness around him swam and he felt all his muscles go limp before he lost all consciousness. When he woke up, he was in their new shelter in the center of the city. It was dim in the room and he was alone, which he was grateful for as he sat up, raking his claws through his messy hair. The gravity of their situation, not only the entire group's but his own personal one slammed into him, driving all the breath from his body. They were all in danger from both sides of the spectrum. The Infected army would mow through them without a second thought and they had moved closer to a military base, putting all of them, Alec and Philo especially at an extreme risk of getting shot up by any patrols.

Then there was Alec's increasingly weak control. He hadn't had an episode like that since they were in Silverton where the urge to kill, to feel flesh tearing under his fangs and claws, out weighed his common sense and morals. "Damn it." he swore quietly, fisting his hair and yanking on it. _I need to get a handle on this. Its getting too far out of control. _Sighing, he swung his legs over the side of the ratty bed and stood up, his knees shaking with the sudden movement. He staggered his way on stiff legs out into the den area, seeing only Wolfen sitting there, scanning through some documents they had found in an abandoned camp. Normally it was Philo that would read through them, his keen eye for important information key with the papers, but it seemed the other had gone out on a scouting expedition again. Wolfen looked up, slightly surprised, when he heard Alec come into the room. "Oh so you finally decided to join the living did you?" he asked, his voice oddly rough.

"How..." Alec stopped and cleared his throat when it broke into a breathy whine, his heart lurching some. "How long was I out?" Wolfen snorted and set his papers down, leaning back in his chair.

"About a week and a half. We thought you had had a heart attack or something. Philo said something about stress-induced coma and we figured that was it. We didn't expect you to be out that long though." Alec's stomach dropped into his feet at what Wolfen had said and he had to sit down or risk meeting the floor in a none to gentle way.

"A week an a half? You're shitting me right?" he breathed, his hands shaking violently. "God... What's happening to me?"

"I don't know but I over heard Josh and Ellis talking about when you got captured and taken to some testing facility in Colorado somewhere. Is that where all those extra perks you have came from?" Alec nodded, unable to speak, his crimson eyes staring blankly at the filthy carpet. "Ellis said that your Infected mind has given you problems before and that its been acting up a lot lately."

"Yeah it has." Alec muttered, leaning back in his seat. "I thought it was because I was being inactive and all the excess energy had no where to go." he snorted contemptuously and shook his head. "Now I'm starting to think its tied to my emotions too. I was seeing red in the sewers. I couldn't even hear what she was saying over its... screaming and howling. I was just... pissed off and it went straight into that monster's lust for blood." he growled softly and stared up at the ceiling before puffing out a deep breath. He examined Wolfen carefully, noticing that he was doing the same to the Hunter and stood up. "Find anything interesting?"

"No, these are just old letters from Generals to Commanders telling them where to move their troops. The last one," he pulled out a ragged piece of paper with several holes in it and a blood stain at the bottom, "moved them to the northern outskirts of the city." Wolfen sighed and leaned back in his chair. "Basically useless to us in any case." he picked up another one that looked slightly older. "This is from about a month ago. Supposedly the Infected army has taken Vegas but hasn't moved from there. Of course, that was a _month _ago. They could be on the eastern border of the city as we speak."

"By car Vegas is only a few hours drive. It wouldn't take them long to march it either. Maybe a couple weeks." Alec mused, taking the paper from Wolfen and examining them. He blinked when he noticed that his right eye had glassed over, frowning when the fog didn't clear from it. He did his best to ignore it however, skimming through the papers. "Is there anything that would suggest Gregory is with this particular branch of the army? I know that he wouldn't stay in Colorado if he knew this is where I'm at. He seemed pretty determined to put me in his ranks."

Wolfen snorted and shook his head. "Who wouldn't be. You're a one man army more or less. And no. For all we know he could be on the east coast watching all the trees in what ever the hell is left of Boston bloom while his army rips any regiments there a new one."

"What a happy thought." Alec snorted with an undertone of an irritated snarl, throwing the useless documents down on the table. "Where are the others?"

A grimace pulled at Wolfen's face at that and he sighed. "Out looking for your brother. He vanished three days ago." ice formed around Alec's heart and stomach and a snarl pulled at his mouth.

"What! Did he just up and leave us too?" he screeched, guilt clawing at him as the boy across from him flinched.

"Not that we're aware of. Philo managed to track him to a canal and there was blood and a bullet casing there. They dredged the canal as much as they could but didn't turn up anything. He might have been captured."

"He better fucking hope that's the case! If he's dead I'll rip my own throat out to go kick his ass in Hell." Alec snapped, fear and fury shooting through him light lightning. First Spirit took off without very much explanation even though she was very obviously still hanging out in the city somewhere doing whatever she left them to do, and now Joshua disappears and the only clues they had as to where he went was blood and a casing. "Was there anything else that might lead us to him?" Alec growled, red pricking at the corners of his vision. _Oh no you don't._ He snarled to himself, shaking his head violently to clear it.

"Philo said he picked up an odd scent on the other side of the canal but the trail didn't go very far. Josh's was mixed in with it slightly. It dead ended at the top of the embankment along with a couple drops of blood."

"And that scent seemed familiar too." Philo's voice cut through their conversation. Alec turned to see him and Ellis walk in, both of them looking worse for wear. "The problem is, like Wolfen said, it stopped at the top of the embankment which makes me think either a rather bizarre form of Infected that none of us have run into before picked him off and took to the trees around the canal, or they were picked up in a truck of some sort. It wasn't that far from the military encampment actually. Maybe a couple miles at the most."

Alec breathed out heavily through his nose and leveled the Smoker with a look through blazing crimson eyes. "Show me." he snapped. Philo seemed taken aback but he didn't argue, motioning for the Hunter to follow him. Alec followed the Smoker to the canal, about a mile from the home. "What the hell was that idiot doing out here alone anyway?" he growled under his breath. "Its not like him to wander off like that."

"I dunno. There were several different trails with Josh's scent of varying ages. My guess is he would sneak out at night to think alone and get some fresh air. Seems like it went wrong this time." the Smoker sighed and motioned to a dark splotch on the concrete at the edge of the deep canal. "The water's about seven feet deep I'd wager but there's no current so if he was just shot and killed his body would be at the bottom in the general area. We didn't find anything that would suggest he's dead in the water." he lead the way to a catwalk that went across the wide canal and directly across from the initial site. He motioned at some splatters of blood on the concrete that went all the way up to the tree line at the edge of the embankment. Alec drew in a deep breath, picking up Joshua's watered down scent. His stomach dropped into his shoes when the other scent assaulted his senses.

"That's the same scent that Wolfen and Spirit have. Its like it can't decide if it wants to be human or Infected." he murmured, drawing in another deep breath.

"Think maybe Spirit picked him up?" there was hope in Philo's voice but it was smothered in how tired the Smoker was.

"Are there any signs of her in the area?" when Philo shook his head with a shrug Alec sighed. "Besides, if it was here she'd have the Hunter I sent after her bring Josh back to us most likely. Unless she met up with the military camp and enlisted their help in healing him." he trailed off and growled, yanking at his hair. "Damn it why is this happening to us. You're down an arm and an eye, I'm losing my damned mind over to my Infected side, Spirit left us without so much as a 'fuck you' and now my brother has been shot and kidnapped." a low screech yanked its way out of Alec's throat before he silenced it, noticing his friend's concerned look.

"Calm down frog-legs." he muttered, grinning at the old nickname. "Don't want you passing out on me now. I can't haul your fat ass all the way back to the house." he snickered when Alec shoved him with a low growl. Alec's mind was racing, thinking back over the past month or so they had been in the city. He searched his memory for any sign of anyone who had been following them and would possibly help Joshua. Ice trickled down his spine when an image of glowing red-blue-red patterned eyes flashed in the darkness when he remembered the sewer incident. Spirit's eyes had changed for the briefest of instants when he had tackled her, her pupils becoming slitted, outlined in bright red and the inside swirling with black and crimson. He hadn't noticed it in the moment, being to angry to realize anything except the urge to kill.

"That's it..." he whispered, making Philo turn to look at him. "That's what she meant when she said 'in between.' They're not human, but they're not Infected either. That's it!" he sprinted past Philo, heading in the direction of the house, bursting through the door and pinning Wolfen, who just happened to be passing from the den to the kitchen, to the ground. "What does the term 'in between' mean to you?" he panted.

Wolfen paled ever so slightly but he masked it quickly with a confused frown. "What? Have you finally leaped off the deep end?" he tried to push the Hunter off of him but Alec just pinned his arms to the ground.

"Spirit mentioned it just before she left us. I know you know what she was talking about. You smell the exact same as her." he scowled when Wolfen seemed to want to remain silent, standing up and stepping over him. "Fine. It doesn't really matter anyway." he hissed, moving into the other room noticing Ellis staring at him with a concerned look.

"Are you alright?" he asked as Alec sat down heavily beside him rubbing his chin in thought.

"I'm fine. I'm just trying to figure something out and our resident mutant-blood doesn't seem to want to say anything." he vaguely noted Philo enter the house, wheezing slightly from the run back but didn't pay him any mind. "I just wish I knew if they're the way they are because of a gene or because of testing."

"What? Alec what are you talking about?" Ellis asked, facing the Hunter fully, his blue eyes shining in the dim light.

"I'm talking about the fact that neither Wolfen nor Spirit are human or Infected at the same time. When she threw the term 'in between' in our faces before she left I think it went right over our heads but now it makes some form of sense." he scratched at his cheek and sighed. "I wonder what the effects are once the Infected side kicks in. If Spirit did in fact pick Josh up and take him somewhere, I hope it wasn't to eat him."

_**Er... yeah... Awful place to leave off and not that great a chapter. This was mostly to put a bit more info out there and introduce a new term and I guess you could say 'Infected kind.' We'll see what happened to Joshua soon enough don't worry. Reviews encourage me to write! Enjoy! **_


	10. Let Go

Purge

Chapter 10- Let Go_; A Static Lullaby_

_'It gains the more it gives, then advances with the poor. So hurry back for more, can't you see that all that stuff's essential? Such boundless pleasure, there's no time for later now. You can't await, you roll your eyes. You've twenty seconds to comply.'_

"_A friend is someone who understands your past, believes in your future, and accepts you the way you are."- Unknown_

Joshua didn't know what to think anymore. A long time ago, long before he had realized that his brother was still alive, he had thought that he would travel with his father forever. Then he thought that he had something good with Philo but it fell apart quickly. Now, one of his only friends, no matter how prickly and generally hard to get close to she was, had abandoned them and his brother was more or less a basket case with his constant struggles with his Infected mind. Sighing, he stuffed his hands in the pockets of his jeans, kicking a small stone along the concrete walkway above a deep canal. He had taken to sneaking out at night sometimes whenever the air in their little shelter became too thick with tension. Alec had been out of commission for a week now, having mysteriously lapsed into a coma like state after their most recent encounter with Spirit. It had shaken them all up pretty bad, how close the Hunter had come to killing her.

Shaking his head, he stopped, staring out at the murky, greenish brown water that was barely illuminated by the claw of a moon that hung above him. The water looked like a flat surface of reflective glass to anyone who didn't know it was about seven feet of filthy, feces and garbage filled water. Wrinkling his nose slightly, Joshua turned to make his way back toward the house, stopping when he heard a noise in the over grown hedges behind him. Reaching for his pistol, he searched the darkness around him with frantic blue eyes. "Who's there?" he grit out nervously, regretting leaving the safety of the house. There was silence for about twenty tense seconds before the moon and starlight glinted off of something in the hedges and a crack split the air. Cold agony blossomed in Joshua's chest, making him chock air and stumble back, his heel sliding over the edge of the canal. He screamed a watery scream as he fell, hitting the water back first. He tried to move his arms and legs to reach the surface but they felt like lead. He was going to drown if the bullet wound in his chest didn't kill him first.

Somewhere, he heard a muted splash of someone else diving into the water, unable to see anything past the darkness that closed in on his vision. A trickle of blood seeped out his mouth, joining the blood raising through the murky water from his wound as a hand, poised with long dark claws, reached out toward one of his. As it grasped his wrist, he couldn't hold his breath any more, a cloud of bubbles leaving his mouth and nose as he was jerked upwards. Just before he and his rescuer broke the surface, his vision went black.

When Joshua woke up, he was in pain, his chest on fire and his muscles aching. The room he was in was dimly lit and he was unable to make out details of much of anything. When he tried to sit up, a hand came down over his eyes and pushed him back down. When the hand was removed, he tried to look around for the person, possibly the one who had rescued him, but saw nothing. When he turned to settle his head back on the concrete floor, he bit back a scream when he saw a pair of bright red eyes staring down at him. The eyes widened and jerked back and he heard a smack and a low muttering in the darkness just to his left. A pang of agony spread through his chest again, making his breath come in ragged gasps suddenly and forced him to hold perfectly still or risk hurting himself more by writhing like he really wanted to. A clawed hand came down on his wrist roughly before sliding up under his arms and dragging his more or less paralyzed form backwards. He was hoisted onto what felt like a cot and a lamp was lit. His heart lurched almost painfully when he recognized the slightly bent, broad shouldered form of Spirit.

He opened his mouth to speak but she cut him off, her voice rough and angry, coming out in ragged patterns of someone who really wanted to punch something. "You're fucking useless Josh. What the hell were you thinking being that far from your shelter in the middle of the goddamned night?" she didn't face him as she ran a hand through her raggedly cut hair, instead opting to adjust the flame in the lamp so it was slightly dimmer before reaching up to rub her eyes with an irritated noise. "Be damned glad I just happened to be close enough to hear the shot. You would be fish food right now if I hadn't been." only then did she turn and the sight that greeted Joshua made his blood run cold. Spirit was snarling at him, fangs protruding from under her upper lip. Her hands had long claws that dug into her palms as she clenched and unclenched her fists, but it was her eyes that weirded Joshua out the most. The whites had turned a sickly gray-red, pale near her still gray-blue irises but darker near the center. Her pupils were slitted now, outlined with a bright red and filled with swirls of black and crimson. If he had to pick a word to describe it he would opt for 'demonic,' but he had a feeling it had something to do with the Infection. "As soon as that hole in your lung heals, I'm dumping your ass back with your brother."

An unfamiliar Hunter crawled into the room the, his camouflage hood back on his shoulders, revealing half-cleaned light blonde hair. It pulled a slip of paper out of its pocket, handing it to Spirit, who leveled Joshua with one last glare before taking it, scanning over it quickly. She sighed and stared down at the Hunter contemplatively before turning to Joshua, who had managed to hoist himself painfully onto his elbows. "Panzer will stay here with you. I need to go talk to Commander Jackson about something." as she spoke, the fangs seemed to retract and her eyes slowly turned back to normal. _Must be wired to her emotions like Alec's Infected side. _He shivered slightly as he remembered the look in Alec's eyes in the sewers. His pupils had been bright white dots for the briefest of instances, much like many feral Infected, also much like Smokers, Tanks, and Witches, civilized or not, before he had calmed down and his eyes had gone back to normal. Joshua still felt like he was in the middle of some supernatural drama though as he watched Spirit seem to go back to normal.

"Wait..." he rasped, his breath ragged again. "You... you've met up with the military?" she gave him a skeptical look that said 'obviously stupid' but she answered anyway.

"Yeah. That was my plan all along. Gregory's army is no more than a week away at the rate they're reported to be moving. I've been swapping strategy with the local Commander and he's been sending messages to the General stationed in Sacramento. We're preparing the city for a full on war. The amount of Infected heading this way is insane and if anyone survives it'll be a miracle." her voice was quiet and dead but her eyes shone with a determined light. "Once things were more nailed down I was going to send messages with Panzer to Alec, getting him and all of you prepared and probably trying to encourage him to join up with the local camp. It would be in everyone's best interest I think."

"But... why not do all this with our group? We could have helped you!" he broke off into ragged, wet coughs, tears pricking at his eyes. When he looked up Spirit was smirking at him with a slightly malicious look in her eyes. "I just don't understand."

"Simple Josh. If this plan didn't work, if the military was any less receptive than the bullet they put in my stomach, all of you would be dead. That night I left, I thought of all the possibilities. My decision to go on my own was probably the most beneficial to all of you. Whether or not it killed me in the process." she shrugged, seeming nonchalant but Joshua knew her, or thought he knew her, well enough to see how much it really troubled her. "The point is Josh, I didn't want y'all to be in any unnecessary danger. If I had thought it would work, I would have put you on a boat to Hawaii, waving goodbye from the dock with a white hankie while the Infected army swarmed the wharf behind me. But none of you would have stood for that. This was the next best thing."

"So you're playing the hero? What do you hope to gain from that?" it was a struggle to talk, but he had to know her motives. A fire flashed through her eyes, turning them into that demonic red-blue-red pattern for a single instant before she visibly had to calm herself down and level the man who was six years her senior with an icy glare.

"Have I ever seemed like that kind of person? No, Josh I'm not playing anything. In case you didn't notice, I place no value in my own life. I care more about what happens to you, to Alec, Philo, Ellis and Wolfen much more than I care about what happens to me. Believe you me, the situation doesn't make me any more hot and bothered than it does you but from all the scenarios I've thought of ever since we were in the mountains, this is by far the best one. Its best to be half prepared than to be blind sided after all. Now. Once again, you stay here with Panzer while I go meet up with the Commander." without another piercing word, she turned on her heel, brushing past the crouched Hunter before her and vanished out the doorway. Joshua stared at the Hunter, Panzer, with a contemplative look as it examined him, crawling forward slowly with its nose up in the air to get a better sense of him.

"So... can you talk?" he said hesitantly, regretting it almost immediately when his wound burned and ached, forcing him to lay out on his back again. The urge to vomit rose up in him but he beat it down quickly. The Hunter peered at him with bright eyes, tilting its head back and forth like a confused puppy. But it said nothing which was answer enough for Joshua as he slipped into unconsciousness again. When he woke up again, there was light coming through a window he hadn't noticed before, the lamp was blown out and there were aggravated voices in the other room. Swallowing thickly, he gradually managed to prop himself up and pull himself to his feet, his breath wheezing in and out roughly as he stood up looking like a stooped old man. Slowly, Joshua staggered his way out of the room and into a small hallway, peering around the corner into a tiny den just in time to see Spirit slam the door in someone's face, yelling "Well fuck you too!" as she did so. Something akin to a growl came from her as she locked the door and turned, jumping when she saw Joshua leaning against the doorway.

"What the hell are you doing up numb nut? Go lay back down." she grit out, stomping toward a coffee table and picking up a stack of rubber banded papers. Joshua ignored the snipe and sat down heavily on a ratty couch, glancing around. He couldn't tell if they were in a small house or in an apartment but it was in bad shape.

"Care to tell me what happened with the Commander?" he rasped, leveling a look at her. He noticed her bristle defensively slightly, her jaw clenching but she calmed down so quickly that it may as well have been a trick of the light. "And while you're at it, go ahead and tell me what the hell was up with you when I first woke up."

"Hmph, believe me, you don't to hear my soap opera esque meeting with that asshole."

"Yes I do." Joshua pushed, getting an irritated look from Spirit. "You left us without so much as a 'fuck you.' I think I deserve to be in on the loop."

"When did you grow a spine?" she muttered. However, she put the papers down and turned to face him. "Alright fine. Basically what happened with Commander asshole is this: he told me that the Infected army was around a five or six day march from the very outer suburbs of the city and that if we don't get some major reinforcements as of last week we're more or less fucked. I informed him of Alec and the rest, giving him a general vicinity where I think y'all were camped out and told him to tell his men to not go trigger happy if they get attacked. Of course, that made Commander jerk-off get his panties all in a twist and he started the third screaming match I've had with him since I met up with his encampment last week." she sighed, rubbing her eyes slightly. "I hate the guy really. I'm fucking sixteen years old. I don't need this crap." she snorted then, leaning back and staring up at the ceiling. "In fact, Commander jackass made a point of pointing out that I'm just a kid when I waltzed into his sorry excuse for a camp. I've seen high school proms with more organization that that. Luckily, I've had many members of my family who were in the military so I was able to keep up with all his militant jargon when he was going Drill Sargent on one of his Captains."

"So what did you do to get him to listen to you?" Joshua rasped, curiosity peaking his interest. He had never heard Spirit speak this much before, not even when she got into yelling matches with Wolfen or Philo back when they were still in the mountains.

"Simple, I pulled out a bunch of maps and documents I had stashed in my bag not only from the big house on Manhattan Beach but from several smaller encampments I had broken into and later blown up." she grimaced at that and rubbed the back of her head. "Now that I think back on it, that probably wasn't the best idea. But anyway, I sat his happy ass down and drew up a plan to station various squads around the eastern, southern and northern borders of the city and more or less out did his strategist. Having jack shit to do at night when its just you and one other asshole tends to make one curious about certain things. Mine was strategy and maps. Wolfen's was repairing and modding weapons." she shrugged and lapsed into silence then, her gaze fixed on the ceiling still. Panzer crawled into the room from where ever he had wandered off to, sitting down beside Spirit with a whine.

"You didn't answer my other question."

"And I'm not going to. At least not today." she leveled a stare at him and sighed, turning back to the papers she had been leafing through before. "Now if you'll excuse me, I need to read through these, see if there's anything useful in them instead of just assing around doing nothing." narrowing his eyes at her hunched form, Joshua tried his best to just relax and let his mind wander. This was not how he had pictured any reunion with Spirit to go. He had been prepared for the insults and the swearing, the jabs at his pride, strength, and intelligence yes. That was a given with Spirit and he knew that it was a defense mechanism and sort of written into her gene code. He hadn't expected to get shot in the chest and get rescued by the last person he ever expected to see and was honestly surprised that she hadn't dragged him back the way he had come and dumped him on Alec's doorstep and disappeared into the night. If she had some ulterior motive she obviously wasn't going to say what it is. She was reluctant enough to say anything about her meeting with the Commander.

"I don't think I'm gonna be healed up enough to go back to Alec and the rest before the army gets here. Why bother sending me back?" he whispered, noticing Spirit's hand twitch slightly. Her grip on the papers tightened some and she didn't answer for the longest time. "Do you even want to?"

"I wasn't aware we were playing twenty questions tonight Josh." Spirit hissed, glaring at her papers.

"I wasn't aware I was going to get shot and rescued by _you_." Joshua snapped back, irritation pricking at him. "You know, there's something about you I never understood and I haven't asked about it until now. You never seem to want to let people get past arms' length with you. Why is that? Was there some traumatic incident in your past that caused it or are you just an eternal reclusive bitch?" Spirit shot him an astonished look, probably having not expected an outburst from a normally quiet man like Joshua. Then she grinned and snickered. The snicker turned into a chuckle and the chuckling turned into something that bordered on maniacal laughter. Eventually, she leaned back in her seat, covering her eyes with one hand as her chest heaved with laughter.

When she finally stopped she rubbed her eyes and centered a look at Joshua, who didn't now if he should be laughing too or be trying to escape. On an ordinary he could take the girl who, according to stories from herself and from Wolfen, was raised an only child, and who was also six or so years younger than him. She wasn't a close range fighter after all and had never had to be. But he was injured and was having a hard time breathing without yelling in pain so if she flipped her lid and attacked him he was more or less screwed over. "Well didn't you just hit the proverbial nail right on the head." she snickered, a shit eating grin spreading across her face. "Its not that I'm a reclusive bitch by nature, by choice yes, but not by nature." she sighed, suddenly getting very stoic and quiet. "Its just that I don't trust myself with others and I don't trust others with me. You were right when you said there was a... I wouldn't say traumatic, but a bad incident throughout a long span of my childhood and its made me wary and suspicious of everyone. Even my closest friends." Joshua may have imagined it in his pained state but he thought he saw her eyes briefly flicker over toward him with her last statement.

"But you've always seemed so good at reading people. I mean, according to Alec, you immediately trusted him enough to let him sleep in the same room as you and Wolfen while Wolfen wanted to just shoot him and get it over with." she snickered again but didn't reply, leaving Joshua open to continue talking. "Though, I guess that's another thing to do with trust. You don't trust your judgment enough to act on what you can see in a person." all he got was a simple nod and had to resist the urge to sigh, knowing it would only hurt him. In the end, they both remained silent for the duration of the evening, a long lost feeling of companionship enveloping their silence.

_**Hur hur, bet y'all weren't expecting two in one day. Call it something to make up for being MIA for so long. I really enjoyed writing this one, lots of dialogue especially on Spirit's end. And I realized when I was almost done that my Homestuck fandom was taking over my life. Spirit is turning into Karkat... yay. Reviews are for the future of this story! Enjoy!**_


	11. Discord

Purge

_**Uh, yeah. Long time no see eh? Sorry if this is kinda crappy but I haven't slept, its currently 6:49 in the morning, and I haven't touched this story in God knows how long. **_

Chapter 11- Discord; _The Living Tombstone's Remix_

_'I'm not a fan of puppeteers, but I've a nagging fear someone else is pulling all the strings. Something terrible is going down, through the entire town, wreaking anarchy and all it brings. I can't sit idly, no, I can't move at all. I curse the name, the one behind it all.'_

"_It is wisdom to recognize necessity when all other courses have been weighed, though as folly it may appear to those who cling to false hope."- J.R.R. Tokien_

Philo had never truly been one to hold a personal grudge. But between Joshua's mysterious disappearance, not yet ruled a murder through loud protests by much of the group, the approaching Infected army, and the constant state of depression most of his remaining friends were in, he was bound and determined to hold a grudge against someone. Anyone. Because there had to be _someone_ to blame for the sorry state they were in. It didn't help that Alec had taken to disappearing for hours on end and when he did return, he was shaken, ruffled, and visibly disturbed. The Smoker could see that he was slowly but surely loosing his mind, all the various forms of stress they were under plus his own personal emotional climate were slowly killing him. Though the Hunter was too proud to admit it, he needed to either leave the city, or get some help. But every time the subject was breached the past couple days since he had woken from his near comatose state, he would react with almost violence, snarling and hissing insults in Infected and human tongues before stalking off. It worried Philo greatly to see someone he considered a brother being torn apart by his own mind but there was nothing he could do if the Hunter wouldn't accept his help.

So he threw himself into gathering information on the Infected army while also trying to find out what really happened to Joshua. So far he had come up with nothing conclusive except the shell of a military-grade weapon. Alec was determined to blame the human army for it, his rage almost pushing him into raiding one of their camps alone in search of his brother. Ellis managed to hold him back with some calming words and a rather strong hold around his middle. As far as the Infected went, they were drawing closer at an alarming rate. During one of Alec's disappearing acts, Philo sat down with Ellis and Wolfen and proposed seeking out the human army for protection. They agreed that it was probably the most wise decision to make, but they knew that, in Alec's current state of mind with all his suspicion and rage directed at any humans outside his group, they decided it wasn't the best idea at the moment. When the Hunter returned, they acted as though they hadn't discussed anything of importance and carried on as usual.

Three days after Alec's awakening, Philo was perched on a rooftop on the edge of the city, a pair of rusty binoculars in his hand. It was still dark out, the moon barely visible on the horizon, but he could still see perfectly. The Infected army spanned the horizon, their camp fires dots of light in the distance. They were close enough to make him very nervous, but not close enough to cause true worry. Of the army itself anyway. He had caught several scouts trying to sneak into the city, either letting them pass and following them from a safe distance to find their destination, or dispatching them as soon as he saw them. Several, he noticed, had explosives on them. With little thought to it, he drew the easy conclusion that they were either going to bomb buildings that would be tactical places for the humans to use, or the camps themselves. Needless to say, he managed to inadvertently save many lives because of his actions. It made him feel sort of warm and fuzzy inside in a weird sort of way.

Sighing, he lowered the binoculars, hooking them onto his belt and standing with a stretch. He had been in the same place for upwards to three hours now and the chill that remained the hair made him rather stiff. He gradually made his way down the stairs to the bottom floor of the building, peeking into various rooms for anything that may or may not be useful to place in his small pack and bring back to the house. There wasn't much. Anything that remained was either too large to carry, had been partially raided, or was broken beyond reasonable repair. More than once he wished that one of his two missing team mates was there with him, missing their company and the banter he always managed to get in with them. Shaking the thoughts away, he crept across the street, always always listening for any sounds that were out of place in the otherwise very silent suburb. Gradually he skulked his way closer to the house, which was more or less centrally located, picking up bits and pieces of useful scrap, abandoned cans of food, and filled and unopened bottles of water and other drinks, his thoughts wandering as he went.

The sound of tramping feet alerted him to an army patrol, forcing him to duck into an open shop, hiding behind the boarded up door to listen as they paused to investigate the area. "Are you sure that new consultant of the Commander's is competent?" one of the soldiers asked in a low voice, sounding nervous.

"Hey, they supposedly out did that previous dick of a consultant, Howard." a second voice snapped back, a bit further away. Philo narrowed his eye, deciding that he should file this information away for later.

"I don't know Hale. We're too close to the edge of the city for my liking with how close those freaks are getting." a third voice sighed. "What about you Provost, you're being awful quiet."

"I don't like it either, but this plan of the Commander's and his new 'best bud,'" the words were biting and sarcastic, "seems legit. I'm worried about the lack of communication. With no way to get the power plant back up, we have no radio contact."

"Yeah," the initial soldier breathed, seeming even more nervous. "and sending a runner would take too long if we got into a pinch. We'd all be dead by the time they got help." Philo stiffened when his voice drew too close for comfort to the shop he was hiding in, feeling the urge to cough clawing its way up his throat. Cursing himself and his breed, he smothered it with hardly more than a very muffled wheeze. The soldiers heard it anyway because there was sudden eerie silence and then the sound of weapons clicking. Swallowing thickly, Philo moved slowly and deliberately, his single hand in the air in a show of surrender and his long tongue retracted into his throat. He stepped carefully into view of the soldiers, taking stock of his surroundings. "Who and what are you?" the nervous soldier demanded, his machine gun pointed right at Philo's forehead.

"Not a threat to you so long as you're not a threat to me." he replied, his voice scratchy and tired. "Can we just talk? I'd rather not explain to my pals why I'm Swiss cheese." he put on his best placating grin, aware that its affect was diminished greatly by his scarred face. He hoped anyway that they would at least lower their weapons.

"You're Infected." one of the other ones stated. Philo resisted the urge to make a sarcastic remark at it and nodded calmly. "You with the army?"

Philo shook his head, lowering his arm slowly. "No. In fact we were planning on avoiding the fight if at all possible. I'm afraid their leader sort of wants my Hunter pal as his second in command, for the power and his brains and all." he shrugged a lopsided shrug. "But I think y'all have a couple of our buddies amongst your ranks."

A third soldier scowled and stepped forward, though the Smoker noticed that they seemed a bit more relaxed. "What would make you assume that?" he growled.

"Just a theory. One's female with short hair and a bit of an attitude problem and a chronic limp. The other's male with short black hair and perpetually timid. Probably injured. Ring any bells?" at their blank looks, Philo sighed. _So either they're laying low or these morons don't know their face from their ass._ He groaned to himself, resisting the urge to slap his own forehead. "Never mind. Doesn't really matter." he paused, deciding to go ahead and go against his better judgment. And his gut. "Listen. There's four of us in my group. Two humans, myself and a Hunter. The Hunter is intelligent but there's a problem." when he noticed he had their attention, he plowed on. "He's been having some major issues with his Infected side. The combination of multiple head injuries and having never truly learned to control it are making him... unstable. He also blames y'all for the disappearance and possible death of his brother."

"What are you asking of us exactly?" the fourth soldier asked, his eyes narrowing.

"I'm asking..." _and I can't believe I'm asking this as well. _"I'm asking if it would be possible for us to seek shelter in the nearest major camp. We could help y'all out in the fight as well as scouting. We also have information on the army leader, Gregory." _Bat shit insane son of a cheap whore that he is._ "And they would never suspect a Hunter or Smoker to come into their camp seeking 'shelter' if in reality, they were scouting for you all." he could see the gears turning in their heads, feeling nervous but accomplished. With the state Alec was in, he was more or less the pseudo-leader of the rag tag group and had put himself in charge of information, scouting, and keeping the others somewhat stable. Ellis was a nervous wreck because of the war and Alec's behavior and Wolfen was still a pissed off recluse with an air of 'look at me crooked and I'll eat your left testicle' around him when he didn't want to be spoken to. They needed all the help they could get, no matter their personal feelings on the matter. Now wasn't the time to be picky.

"So what you're saying is... you want shelter for yourself, a pair of survivors, and an unstable Hunter in our major camp. And you're willing to offer espionage services in return?" the fourth soldier, who was obviously the most intelligent of the group now that Philo thought about it, drawled. He was silent for a while before he sighed, closing his eyes. "Come back here at noon with your buddies and we'll set you up with an escort."

"What!" soldier one squeaked.

"Provost you can't be serious!" soldier two snapped, scowling.

"Do you really think the Commander would agree to this?" soldier three demanded, scowling as well. Provost turned and leveled a glare at them, causing them to clam up rather quickly.

"Yes. Because _you_, Hale, are going to go back and convince him that this is in our best interest." he snapped, his voice cold and commanding. "Now." with a 'yes sir,' Hale scrambled away, disappearing down the street quickly. "You got a name Smoker?" Provost asked, turning back to Philo. Once he got introductions and general descriptions out of the way, the Smoker made his way quickly back to the house, praying that all of the other three were there. Pushing his way through the door, he dropped his bag by the stairs and did a quick sweep of the rooms. He yanked Wolfen out of his room and told him to wait upstairs before moving to Alec and Ellis' shared room. He woke them up quickly and lead them, the two bleary and muttering profanities behind him, upstairs.

"Philo, you had best have damn good reason for waking us up." Alec growled, letting out a toothy yawn.

"I think its a good reason."

"What is it exactly?" Ellis mumbled, rubbing his eyes. "Surely it coulda waited a couple more hours."

"No, 'cause we have 'till noon to decide on a course of action." the Smoker sighed, dreading the outcome of his next few words. "Look, I was out checking on the Infected army's position, way too close by the way, and I ran into a squad of human soldiers." the others stiffened noticeably at that, a low growl escaping Alec as his eyes clouded with anger. "Wait now Alec before you go on a war path. They didn't shoot at me, gave me a chance to state my case. And I kinda... asked if we could shelter ourselves in their base in return for our services as scouts." he winced at the heavy silence that followed, waiting for yelling and a possible brutal beating.

"You. What." Alec hissed, his chest cavity filling with air as he stood, trying to make himself larger and more threatening. "What the hell sort of wild hair do you have going on you idiot! What could _possibly_ make you think this is a good idea?" he was practically screeching by the end of his statements. Ellis stood, laying a placating hand on the Hunter's arm. It didn't appear to have a noticeable effect but at least it kept Alec from lunging at the Smoker.

"Think about it stupid." Philo snapped back, looming over Alec with a hard look on his face. "Once Gregory gets here, who do you think he'll seek out? The army? Or more allies. And if he finds you, we're screwed, especially with the state you're in. The humans are the best chance we have for protection and maybe, _maybe_, of finding Josh. We'll have food, shelter, and allies, or meat shields depending on your view. I see no downside. And you'd best look past that blinding rage you've sunk yourself in and see sense or I'll beat it into your lousy ass." he hated yelling at friends, hated raising his voice in general, but Alec needed it bad.

"So what, you think we can just waltz into the base expecting to be handed laurels and goblets of wine? I think we'll get shot before we get to the gate!" Alec yelled back, now up in Philo's face.

"And I think you need to trust me for once since we've known each other! I've followed you and your ideas and plans this whole time and to what end? Our group is broken up. You're a psychotic wreck, Joshua is missing, Spirit is missing, Ellis is worried to the point of premature gray hair over you and this whole situation, Wolfen is a raging recluse, and I'm slowly killing myself trying to keep what's left of us together! Think idiot! What's more important, our safety, or our petty desires and wants?" he paused to take a breath, not missing the stunned looks the three had on him. "I know you don't want to seek help from the human military. But I also know you don't want to be turned into Gregory's personal lap dog. The humans are our best shot of staying alive. The group I met will wait where they are to set us up with an escort to the base. And I'm going, with or without all of you." by the time he fell silent, he was more or less whispering and had stepped back a few feet.

"Philo... don't say that. We can't separate any more than we already have." Ellis said, his eyes round and glistening. "I think... I agree with you. We should at least give the army a chance. Maybe Josh will be there." he turned to look at Alec and then at Wolfen. "What about you? You've been awful quiet."

Wolfen sighed, running a hand through his hair and shifting his weight. "I don't really see much of a downside. We'll have access to a constant supply of food and water, fresh weapons and plenty of ammunition, and enough allies to create a decent wall between us and the Infected."

They all looked at Alec, who was infuriated and lost at the same time. He swallowed thickly, seeming to realize how ridiculous he was being about the situation. Most of his anger faded from his crimson eyes and he let out a ragged sigh. "Alright fine. I'm outvoted, I know when to give in. We'll give them a chance." he glared at Philo. "But if there's even an inkling that they killed or hurt my brother or that they'll betray us to Gregory in the end, I'll personally kill every single one of them and leave the city to the Infected." with those last threatening, growled words, he grabbed Ellis' hand and dragged him back downstairs, muttering under his breath.

_** Yeah its short I know, but the next one will hopefully be a bit longer. I'll have it up as soon as I can. Hope y'all enjoyed and leave meh some reviews for my return! It provides me coffee to drink when I decide to be stupid and pull all nighters like this.**_


	12. Follow

Purge

Chapter 12- Follow; _Breaking Benjamin_

_'I'll follow you if you follow me. I don't know why you lie so clean. I'll break right through the irony. Enlighten me, reveal my fate, just cut these strings, that hold me safe. You know my head, you know my gaze. You'd know my heart if you knew your place.'_

"_Contempt is the weapon of the weak and a defense against one's own despised and unwanted feelings."- Alice Miller_

_What am I seeing?_ Spirit thought dryly to herself as she peered down the street through binoculars. _I really hope I'm hallucinating. Or at the very least dreaming. _Lowering the binoculars she blinked hard, rubbed her eyes and raised them again, letting out a low growling noise when the group walking down the street hadn't disappeared. "Damn everything." she bit out, sliding down the ladder from her makeshift post just outside the military camp. It was nothing more than an old storage lot with long rows of buildings and a main office in the back where the Commander had set up his main operations. Every storage unit had been emptied out and transformed into bunks and medical wards. "Murray, we've got visitors!" she called to a guard by the entrance as she approached. Spirit, Panzer and now Joshua were staying in an apartment building adjacent to the base, the fire escape in which had been turned into a secondary watch place. "Two Infected, two humans. They're friendly." the dark skinned man stared down at her with confusion, hefting his gun.

"How do you know if they're friendly or not?" he demanded.

"I just do. Open the gate and let them in. I'm going to tell the Commander." _And hopefully they don't spot me._ Dread filled her at the possible beating she was bound to get if she got cornered by one of them, especially Alec or Wolfen. Philo would just yell at her and Ellis would just be happy to have another group member back since Joshua's disappearance. Once the gate slid open, she made her way quickly down to the Commander's office. "Hey Commander jerk-off. We've got four friendlies coming in. Two human, two Infected."

The Commander, a large Native American man with a permanently angry face and an equally sunny disposition, sat forward and scowled at her. "Your old group I presume. Well, go and give them a warm welcome, by all means."

"Absolutely not. If anything I'm just going to throw Josh at them and flee for the hills." she snapped back, crossing her arms. "I have not intention of rejoining them."

"Why's that? Afraid of a few memories?"

"No. I'm afraid of getting my ass turned inside out. Send Private Oswald if you have to. Poor sod's always looking to lick your boots." waving dismissively over her shoulder, she turned and left, skirting to the south side of the lot when she saw the group of four at the entrance. She hoped Joshua hadn't been bored and looking out the window when they passed the apartment complex. Otherwise, he'd, despite his injury, be dragging her down there to meet back up with them no sooner had she stepped through the door. Noticing Panzer tormenting one of the newer soldiers, Spirit whistled to get his attention. "C'mon you mutt. We gotta go scout something out or the Commander's gonna blow a gasket." Panzer bounded over to her with a look of nothing but pure eagerness plastered across his face. He really was like a massive dog. Though he was a shred more intelligent.

Sighing, she hefted her M16 and lead the Hunter out the south entrance, feeling guilty for the lie more so that the fact that she was avoiding people she had once called friends and allies. They wandered aimlessly through the streets of the city near the base, picking up random bits of equipment that had been overlooked by patrols before heading back to the apartment. As a lingering thought, she detoured to the warehouse where Panzer had initially found her, slipping into the dark room and reading over the message that was still there though fading. Taking out a notepad and a pen, she handed Panzer the flashlight she had taken out and instructed him to keep it pointed at the wall. He held it clumsily but did as she said as she wrote it down quickly, stuffing the pad back in her pack and snatching the flashlight back. It was dark when they reached the apartment, but Joshua was still awake, reading over some old reports Spirit had taken from the Commander without him knowing. "I was wondering when you were gonna be back." he mused, not looking up.

"Yes well. Avoiding possible brutal instances does take time now doesn't it?" she replied dryly, sitting on the couch and pulling out the notepad. Reading over the message again, frowning. "Say, do you believe in prophecy?" she asked, surprised at herself for the question. The past couple days Joshua had been here, still having problems breathing even today, had been spent in silence or yelling at each other. Civil conversation was something that was few and far between for them.

Joshua put the paper down and glanced at her. "I don't know. Depends on what you mean by prophecy." he answered with a lopsided shrug, afraid to move anything on the right side of his body or risk agitating his wound.

"Eh, well. This... thing I found a while back." she held up the notepad. "I can't tell if its the ramblings of an insane man dying slowly of blood loss or some fucked up self-fulfilling prophecy of some mythical genre." Joshua stood and made his way over slowly, sitting a respectful distance from her and hesitantly took the notepad. Spirit sniffed. "I'm not going to bite you or hit you you know." she muttered, slightly sullenly.

"I'd rather not run that risk." he retorted, scanning over the paper. His face twisted in confusion. "This sounds like something out of a fantasy novel. But if it caught your apathetic interest than its gotta be something." he set the notebook down and centered a serious look on Spirit. "So how far did you run when Alec and the rest entered the base? I wondered why you left so quickly around noon." she nearly chocked on air a the biting words, knowing she couldn't brush it off by saying she didn't know what he meant without looking like a pathetic coward.

"Commander jackass wanted me to go check something out anyway. Going to jot that," she motioned at the ramblings with a dismissive hand, "was an afterthought. They're doing just fine without us anyway." she shrugged and stood. "They're big boys. They can look after themselves without little ol' me holding their hands. Though I would like to know who convinced who. Alec is equal parts stubborn and prideful and Philo is the exact same. Ellis and Wolfen probably just sat back and watched the sparks fly."

"Well, if I know Alec as well as I'd like to believe, he probably didn't suggest it. He hates asking for help. Philo probably spent a good amount of time and added some gray hair in for posterity in convincing him." Joshua let out a bitter chuckle, picking up the note pad again. "If I didn't know better, I'd say those two were a match made in Heaven."

"With the things Philo told me a while back, they may as well have been." Spirit shook her head, sinking in to a chair and swiveling around to examine some maps and coordinates she had been given the day before, absently patting Panzer on the head when he settled beside her.

"Oh? And what are those things exactly?"

"Preemptive tongue jobs in the middle of the forest unbeknownst to Ellis." she smirked when Joshua chocked on his own spit, though it vanished when he gasped in pain at the coughing. "Don't die on me now. Believe it or not, no I don't enjoy arguing with the Commander. And he's the only other intelligent life form within twenty miles."

"If I didn't know better, I'd say that was a compliment."

"It was asshole. Don't get used to it." she glanced over at him, looking away quickly when her hazy vision picked up the weird look on his face. "And no, we are not going to go talk to your damned brother and the rest of them. Don't ask."

Joshua huffed. "What makes you think you can stop me?"

Whirling in her seat, Spirit felt her eyes flash over, not bothering to force them back, and all but snarled at him. "Because one, you're injured and any movement more than walking from your room to here almost makes you pass you. Two, Panzer listens to everything I say and _will _keep you here if I tell him to. Three, I'm stronger than you." Joshua shrunk back at her red-blue-red glare, grimacing. The 'in-between,' as Spirit called it, strand of the Infection gave her the advantage of strength, and sharpened her poor vision by a decent amount. She was tempted to use it all the time, having minimal control over it and its appearance, but she knew better. If the Commander knew, he would be less likely to trust her 'counsel' with strategy, and would likely have her shot at first chance. She didn't want to know if he had tried that with Alec and Philo, but the base seemed relatively in tact when she had given it a sparing glance on her way up, so either it was a quiet affair or he had allowed them sanctuary. Joshua watched as she turned back in her seat, the red not fading from her pupils. As much as he hated himself for it, when she took on that appearance, it scared him. It instantly turned on his fight or flight instinct and it took all he had to not move past leaning away from the rather evil looking stare. He could trust her, he knew this, but it still didn't mean she was as unpredictable as her Hunter companion.

The next day, Spirit was forced to leave the comfort of the apartment to go talk to the Commander about the stationed patrols that had been sent out early the day before. A couple would have to be tweaked, she predicted, once the next reports of the Infected army's position had come in. She dreaded it, more so that usual, because she would most likely run into one of the four. If not all of them. The whole 'walk of shame' down the long lot to the main office at the back was tense and entirely too long for her liking but luck seemed to be on her side. She passed no one but the usual soldiers, who were whispering about the newcomers. She didn't pick up anything regarding their location within the base though. Her heart just about stopped when she reached the door, hearing all too familiar voices inside. Luckily she was able to slip inside and hide out by a wall, which lead into the Commander's room, listening in on their conversation, her heart in her shoes. She narrowed her eyes when the talking stopped abruptly. "Someone else is in here." Alec growled. Two seconds later a blur of muscle and brown slammed against her and pinned her to the floor.

"God... _damn it!_" she spat, the breath knocked from her lungs.

"You." it wasn't a question, or an exclamation. More a statement of slight disdain and disgust. She glared up at him, aware that the patterned eyes were out for the world to see.

"Yes, me. Get off me you fucking wild boar of a man." she snarled, ripping one of her wrists free and using it to roughly shove Alec off him. He didn't struggle, sliding off her with a closed off expression. No sooner was she on her feet did a heavy fist connect with her nose. Stumbling back with a curse, she looked up to see Wolfen glaring at her, fist still out. Growling, she launched herself at him, pinning him to the wall, their foreheads slamming together. He grunted at the resulting pain and shoved her back, his eyes flashing to red pupils as well. He smirked down at his new-found claws and swiped at her, catching her shoulder. Yelling as fire spread through her arm, Spirit swiped back, catching his cheek. He launched at her, pushing her to the ground. Planting her shoes on his thighs, she kicked him off and over her, flipping on to her stomach.

"You betrayed me!" he screamed once he had righted himself, stalking forward and getting in her face.

"You have not right to judge my actions!" she shouted back, fists balling at her sides while forcing her eyes back to normal, she noticed his pupils fade to black as well, their claws vanishing with the red. "I made my choices. You can grow up and get over it."

"Me grow up? If you had grown up and gotten over your damned child hood, you would have noticed that we _needed_ you." Wolfen snarled, looking like he wanted nothing more than to hit her again.

"Needed me? You seem to be doing just damn fine and dandy on your own! The _group_ didn't need me, _you_ needed me you fucking son of a bitch. You're too dependent!"

Alec and Ellis got between them when it seemed they were about to go for each other's throats again, Ellis shoving Spirit back and Alec slipping in front of Wolfen, glaring at him and daring him to try and get past. "Alright girls, you're both pretty." the Commander snarked, getting equally heated glared. "There's more important things to worry about right now." he tossed a cloth at Spirit as he spoke, who pressed it to her bleeding nose.

"Right." she sighed, pushing past Philo, who was standing slightly stunned half way down the hall. With her free hand, she slung her bag off her back and pulled out the papers she had been looking at the night before. "The troops that were sent out yesterday. Have you gotten any reports back from them?"

The Commander moved back into the room, casting a wary glance at the group behind him as though he wasn't sure they should be hearing their plans or not. "Yes. The Infected army are in the same place they were two days ago."

Spirit frowned at that, pinching her nose to stem the bleeding. "Either they're waiting until we lower our guard or they're sending scouts to sabotage anything we might want or need. And to take out other survivors." she paused, wondering whether or not she should say the next thing on her mind. "That's what happened to Joshua. After I got him patched up I went out to look for the shooter. No sign of survivors or any of us. But there was a Common with a gun not too far away."

"Josh?" Alec blurted, grabbing her arm roughly. "You found him?"

Shaking him off, Spirit glanced at him but didn't reply. "I'll send Panzer out to run the message to look out for scouts from the Infected. We might have to tweak their positions once the Infected move up."

"Excellent. I was about to suggest that actually." Jackson said, nodding but not smiling, though his eyes shone with a sense of satisfaction. "Perhaps you should house these four in that little nest of yours." he suggested with a smirk.

"Absolutely not. There's barely enough room for three let alone seven. If I wasn't climbing walls before, I would be then. Just keep them where ever you stashed them last night." she snapped, ignoring the feeling of stares and glares on her back. "Is that all you needed me for? I need to get that message around."

"Yes, but come back at dusk when the next reports are due." Jackson waved her off. Spirit sighed, her nose still sluggishly bleeding, shoving past the four in the doorway. They followed her outside, much to her irritation, and hadn't gone far before Philo caught her arm.

"So you're the new strategist I heard so much about." he sniggered, smirking down at her. "You found Josh did you? Figured he wasn't dead, but _someone_," he glared at Alec over his shoulder, "Was a little too quick to jump to conclusions."

"Yes well. He has a hole in his lung and can barely walk twenty yards without collapsing." was the clipped reply. Her heart was hammering in her throat and her ears and she could barely breath past her own panicking system and her clogged nose, which didn't help stem the coming panic attack that she was brutally beating back.

"Are you going to allow us to see him?" Alec hissed, a hidden threat in his tone. Spirit turned to him sharply, her eyes flashing and remaining, forcing him to shrink back though he growled at the same time.

"I don't appreciate being threatened. And if that's what you're going to do, than no, you can't. I don't care if he's your brother, I don't care if he's your fucking mother. Threaten me, you can stay the hell away or get your neck broken." she snarled, pulling her arm from Philo to stalk toward him a step.

Wolfen let a malicious smirk spread across his face. "Protective. You never reacted like that with me. Maybe you're harboring something extra for him." he snarked, not reacting when Spirit's glare was directed at him. She made no reply to the comment, knowing it was meant to provoke her, and spun on her heel, stalking away with a straight back and tense shoulders. The four followed her again, muttering amongst themselves. She paused at the door to the apartment, turning the idea of letting them in or not over in her head. She was very tempted to slip in, slam the door in their faces, and lock them out. While she was infuriated with Wolfen for the attack—though she reasoned that it was justified—and irritated at Alec for his posturing, Philo and Ellis had never done anything to her to wish them ill will. Or to prevent them from seeing a friend. They were here now anyway, so it would seem childish of her to send them away now. Sighing, she pushed the door open, letting a shrill whistle out for Panzer so she could send the message out, and sank into her chair by the desk.

Panzer bounded into the room, halting when he saw the strangers. A low growl came from him and he stalked over to Spirit, not taking his eyes off them for a second as she wrote about eighteen identical notes, put them in a small burlap bag, and passed it down to the Hunter. She told him to look for patrols around the far edge of the city until he ran out of papers and then come back. He nodded eagerly, sliding past the four with a warning growl, which Alec answered in a lower tone, and disappearing down the stairs. "Hey Josh, your keeper is here to collect you." she called in an exhausted tone, deciding to ignore the group for now and bury herself in papers. The reunion was bittersweet and Spirit felt like a sore thumb for remaining in the room during it, awkward seeping into every bone in her body. She ignored it for the sake of reexamining the 'prophecy' she had brought back the day before, picking it apart as much as she could for the sake of boredom. She didn't realize that it was getting dark until the conversation beside her lulled some. Drumming her fingers, she wondered if it was worth leaving to go meet back up with Commander again or not. She had to get out of the atmosphere that had settled on the room though, so she stood and left without a word, not even sure if she was noticed.

Once she reached the office, she found that the reports were late. While she griped about wasting a trip, she was degrees more comfortable to have a reprieve from the apartment. She provoked a screaming match with the Commander for the sake of wasting more time away from it before leaving, feeling a bit lighter. She met Panzer at the gate, going so far as to indulge his affectionate greeting—which was made up of standing to his full height and launching himself at her, chocking her with a bear hug and letting out rumbling purrs—if only to extend her time _away_ from the awkward in the apartment. She told herself that it was simply because she wasn't as close to them as she once was but it was a bad lie. She wanted nothing more than to rejoin them, snark and argue and banter with them like she used to. But her pride, a sickening amount of it, held her back and kept her in the mindset of 'solitary.' Wolfen's comment from earlier had also struck a chord though she hadn't let it show on her face. Was there something else with Joshua that had forced the protective response from her? Or was she just acting like the sixteen year old girl she was and developing flighty, unstable feelings for Joshua? Considering the past few days had been spent almost exclusively in his presence and that he had been the most kind to her in the past out of the group, it was a possibility. And one she intended to shake off quickly. Distractions at the current time were not good. She had noticed how a strong, stable relationship like that between Alec and Ellis had seemed to be fraying at the edges. The 'why's tugged at her curious side, but it wasn't her place to ask. It might never be again, and while she wouldn't verbally complain, that didn't make the feeling of being left out and her fear of being forgotten diminish any, regardless of whether or not she purposely brought it on herself. _I'm a damned masochist to the end. At least that's something I can count on._ She snarked to herself, a bitter smirk spreading across her face as she and Panzer ascended the stairs to the apartment.

_** Not quite as serious as the last chapter. The group is back together, though slightly reluctantly. Next is reinstate the group dynamic and tweak it to fit the changes in the characters. The army approaches slowly but surely. Hopefully y'all enjoyed! Leave me a review to lemme know what you think and possibly give me some ideas for the future.**_


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